Blake draws a blank
South Africa’s Simbine stuns favourite to take 100m gold
Blake, who had been desperate to shine after the retirement of Usain Bolt, came third in 10.19 and appeared far from his fluent best from start to finish.
Jamaican sprinter Yohan Blake stumbled out of the blocks and said he was “all over the place” in coming third as South Africa’s Akani Simbine won a stunning 100m gold at the Commonwealth Games yesterday.
Simbine took a surprise victory in 10.03 sec, leading a South African one-two on Australia’s Gold Coast as Henricho Bruintjies took silver in 10.17.
Blake, who had been desperate to shine after the retirement of Usain Bolt, came third in 10.19 and appeared far from his fluent best from start to finish.
It was the biggest title yet and a major scalp for Simbine, 24, who finished fifth and a place behind Blake in the 2016 Rio Olympics 100m final.
“It’s my first international title and for me it’s a milestone, a stepping stone towards the world championships, and the Olympics and more competitions and more international competitions,” said Simbine, adding he needed to call his mother watching back home in South Africa.
“I wasn’t focused on him (Blake). I literally just focused on myself and making sure I get out fast and get to the 50m as quick as I can.”
Blake, 28, the joint secondfastest man of all time after fellow Jamaican Bolt, who retired last summer, had jokingly been told by his former teammate not to return home if he failed to win gold.
“I’m not worried,” said Blake of Bolt’s likely disappointment, in what was the first major championship since the sprint legend called time on his career.
“I know what I can do and I just don’t know what happened, it was just a bad race for me.”
Blake, who was fastest into the final and had been hot favourite in Bolt’s absence, said that he was “stumbling all the way, I just didn’t recover from it. It was an easy race for me to win because I’ve been feeling good.
“I’ve been running good and I just didn’t put the start together so I was all over the place.”
The race, one of the high points of the Games, had appeared to open up for Blake when England’s Adam Gemili, the 2014 Commonwealth silver-medallist who was second quickest into the final, withdrew hours beforehand with injury.
Perfect race
Simbine, smiling broadly, said that he was “humbled” by victory.
“I knew that it was something I could do, it was just a matter of me coming here and making sure I put the perfect race together,” he said.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Michelle-Lee Ahye won the women’s 100m in 11.14, ahead of Christania Williams in 11.21 and her fellow Jamaican Gayon Evans, who clocked 11.22.
The results came on a day when New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard became the Games’ first transgender athlete — although her appearance was cut short by a painful injury.
The 40-year-old was leading the women’s +90kg category when she attempted Games record snatch of 132kg, only for her left elbow to give way under the weight. Feagaiga Stowers, second behind Hubbard before her injury, took gold in one of two weightlifting titles for Samoa, who also won the men’s 105kg through Sanele Mao.
England’s James Willstrop beat Paul Coll of New Zealand to win the men’s squash, while New Zealander Joelle King was crowned women’s champion with victory over English player Sarah-Jane Perry.
Cameron van Der Burgh stunned world record holder Adam Peaty to win the 50 metres breaststroke gold medal on a big night in the pool for South Africa at the Commonwealth Games yesterday.
Apart from Van der Burgh’s triumph, Chad Le Clos clinched the butterfly treble with victory in the 100m final for his 16th Commonwealth Games medal and Tatjana Schoenmaker completed a breaststroke double with victory in the 100m final.
The boilovers kept coming on the penultimate night of the swimming with Bronte Campbell upstaging her sister Cate’s bid for a fourth gold medal with a stirring come-from-behind win in the 100m freestyle.
Van der Burgh hurtled off the starting blocks and defied Peaty’s efforts to run him down in the frantic one-lapper, winning by four hundredths in 26.58 seconds to inflict a rare defeat for the Englishman and complete a 50m hat-trick.
The South African, who beat Peaty in the event at the 2014 Glasgow Games, celebrated wildly by punching the water before climbing on to the lane rope and pumping his fists in delight.
Peaty has proved indestructible in the 50m and 100m in recent years and was expected to carry off the breaststroke double, but London Olympic 100m champion van der Burgh had other ideas.
Elsewhere, Mitch Larkin became the first man to win the backstroke treble at the Commonwealth Games, leading an Australian clean sweep in the 200m final.