COUNTY SUCCESS
THERE was mixed fortunes for two former Loughborough University students after gold medallists England were sensationally disqualified from the women’s 4 x 400m relay.
Alumna Jessie Knight had produced one of the finishes of the Commonwealth Games, finding a final bit of energy to thrust her arm out on the line as Canada closed in.
But the hosts were denied a fairy tale end to the athletics programme as judges spotted Jodie Williams’ foot straying on the first changeover.
With England disqualified, gold went to Canada, silver to Jamaica and bronze to Team Scotland, whose line-up included Loughborough alumna Beth
Dobbin.
The Scottish team’s time of 3:30.15 was a season’s best with the podium place just reward for Dobbin, Zoey Clark, Jill Cherry and Nicole Yeargin.
Meanwhile, there was another bronze for Loughborough University student Ben Pattison.
Team England’s Pattison, 20, finished third in the men’s 800m final behind Kenya’s Wycliffe Kinyamal and Australian Peter Bol.
Former Loughborough University student Daryl Selby won silver in the final of the men’s squash doubles.
Selby and his partner Adrian Waller lost 11-3 7-11 11-9 to fellow England pair and world champions James Willstrop and Declan James at the University of Birmingham squash centre.
There was also a silver for Loughborough College student Chloe Birch in the final of the badminton women’s doubles on the final day of action.
Birch and her partner Lauren Smith were beaten by Malaysia’s Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan 21-5 21-8 in a match that lasted just 33 minutes.
Loughborough ended the Commonwealth Games with 47 medals – 14 golds, 17 silvers, and 16 bronzes.
Australia finished top with 178 medals, followed by England on 176, which is their best ever Commonwealth Games in terms of total medals won.
But it is not their best return in terms of golds, with their 57 just one short of the 58 they won at Glasgow 2014.
Scotland finished with 51 medals – just two short of the record tally achieved at Glasgow 2014, when they finished fourth.
Northern Ireland secured a record medal haul of 18, having won a total of 12 at both the 2018 and 2014 Games.
Meanwhile, Wales earned 36 medals at each of the past two Commonwealth Games but finished with 28 this time.