Katie is a golden wonder
TEAM Scotland cyclist Katie Archibald is celebrating after scooping gold in the i ndividual pursuit.
The Glasgow athlete defeated Rebecca Wiasak of the home nation Australia to add to the gold medal won by Neil Fachie in the velodrome yesterday.
She said: “This means so much.
“I could hear the crowd cheering for her and I was thinking ‘oh no’. But what a fantastic day.”
TEAM SCOTLAND’S Katie Archibald won a spectacular gold medal in the individual pursuit to get her Commonwealth Games campaign off to the best possible start.
The Glaswegian won bronze in the points race in her home city four years ago but she improved on that this time around, defeating Rebecca Wiasak of the home nation Australia to add to the gold medal won by Neil Fachie in the velodrome yesterday.
“This means so much,” she said of her gold medal.
“I could hear the crowd cheering for her and I was thinking ‘oh no!’. But what a fantastic day.”
With her brother John also guaranteed a Games medal having reached the final of the men’s individual pursuit, it has been quite a day for the Archibald clan and the newlycrowned women’s individual pursuit champion admitted there will be some celebrating tonight. “We’re not really ones for parties,” she admitted.
“So this will be the biggest Friday night we’ve had in quite a while.”
Archibald will not have much time to enjoy this victory though as she has
Meanwhile, Scotland’s beach volleyball players made history this morning by winning this country’s firstever beach volleyball match at the Commonwealth Games.
Gold Coast 2018 is the first time that the sport has been included in the Commonwealth Games and the men’s pair of Seain Cook and Robin Miedzybrodzki took on Sri Lanka on Coolongata beach front.
The Scots overcame any pre-match nerves they may have been feeling to secure the win, 2-1, to write themselves into the history books.
Their victory was soon backed-up by their beach volleyball compatriots, Lynne Beattie and Mel Coutts, who also won their opening match, defeating Grenada 2-0.
The men’s table-tennis team also made an impressive start to their Gold Coast campaign, comfortably defeating Kiribati 3-0 in their opening match of the team event while the badminton team secured their place in the quarter-finals despite losing 5-0 to India, who are one of the gold medal favourites.
That defeat did not adversely affect the Scots progress though as the eight-strong team had done enough to make it through to the knock-out stages having defeated Sri Lanka and Pakistan on day one of competition.
There was continued success in the pool to follow on from the brace of silver medals won by Hannah Miley and Ross Murdoch yesterday. Both Scots had their sights set on gold prior to the meet but in the end, had to settle for second place.
But there is further chance for gold today, with the men’s 4 x 100m relay team safely making it through to the final, with the squad breaking the Scottish record on their way to the final.
The quartet of Kieran McGuckin, Dan Wallace, Scott McLay and Craig McLean ensuring they will be fighting for a medal, breaking the Scottish record in the process.