TATTIE SIGH
Marshall and Foster have to settle for silver
ALEX MARSHALL came within six inches of Scotland immortality as he suffered his first Games defeat in 16 years.
But he vowed he wouldn’t be denied a record fifth gold whether he has to wait four days or four years. Bowls legend Tattie and partner Paul Foster suffered an agonising last-end defeat in the pairs final to Welshmen Daniel Salmon and Marc Wyatt after a 12-10 loss and took silver. The 51-year-old, who hit the front and back pages with his infamous “get it up ye” celebrations four years ago in Glasgow, was itching for a repeat performance with the last delivery of the match Down Under. But it slipped past – and with it his first chance of a fifth gold to take him past athletics icon Allan Wells and para cyclist Neil Fachie. Now he and Foster team up with two of the triples team who won gold, Ronnie Duncan and Derek Oliver, to chase more glory. Marshall said: “It’s hard to take but you can’t be too despondent with a silver. There were a few records to be broken but I’m not going to dwell on that. We came to medal and we have so we’re happy with that.
“That’s my first defeat in the Games since 2002. It’s a bit disappointing that way but I wasn’t thinking that at the start of the match.
“I’ve got many, many more opportunities to get that fifth gold medal, starting with the fours.
“It didn’t happen for us today but we’ll bounce back strongly from that.”
Marshall didn’t have long to dwell on disappointment as they kicked off their fours bid in style hours later with a 25-9 group win over Brunei Darussalam.
Targeting Friday’s final he said: “Ronnie and Del have already won a gold in the triples so they’re going to be highly confident.”
Even if he doesn’t succeed this time around Tattie has no intention of making his sixth Games his last.
Marshall said: “I’m not going to stop.
“Four years is a long way away, you don’t know what your health’s going to be like. But if things go to plan I’ll be in Birmingham. I’ll never give up,”
It’s hard to take but you can’t be too despondent with a silver ALEX MARSHALL