Six appeal for Team Wales as they bag three more golds on the Gold Coast
WALES bagged a sixth gold medal at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games yesterday after swimmer Alys Thomas broke a Games record and finished top in the Women’s 200m Butterfly final.
Thomas finished with a time of 2min 5.45sec, with Australia’s Laura Taylor taking silver and Canada’s Mabel Zavaros clinching bronze.
Swansea swimmer Thomas said: “I don’t think I’ll be able to stop myself from crying!”
The butterfly specialist told the BBC: “I couldn’t see anything. My goggles were smudged up. So I just swam my own race.
“I bet my coach if it I did this I could shave his head so I guess I’m shaving his head!
“I’m 27 and this is my first major international medal. I’m finally breaking through now. It says something about being patient when you’re young.”
Hollie Arnold also picked up a gold medal after securing a world record in the women’s F46 javelin throw.
Arnold said: “This is a memory I’ll never forget.”
The gold comes after Arnold took part in her third Paralympics in 2016 where she won gold with a world record-breaking throw, and in July 2017 she won gold at the 2017 IPC Athletics World Championships in London – beating her own world record.
Dan Salmon and Marc Wyatt provided a stunning upset on the bowling rink by beating record-chasing Scotsman Alex Marshell and Paul Foster, the defending champions, 12-10 in the men’s pairs final.
Marshall was bidding for a Commonwealth gold medal, which would have moved him past track and field sprinter great Allan Wells and para-cyclist Neil Fachie.
Foster, who has won three ComHEAD
monwealth titles, and Marshall were 5-1 up but Wales fought back to lead 11-10 going into the final end.
And Wyatt produced a perfect bowl to take the spoils and begin the celebrations.
“Marc had lost in the last two semi-finals, so for him it’s an amazing
achievement. It is the best thing in the world,” beamed Salmon.
Welsh marksman Ben Llewellin shot his way to silver in the men’s skeet.
It took a Commonwealth record from Cyprus’ Georgios Achilleos to deny him gold.