Commonwealth Games Day 6: Australia relay team beaten by 0.08secs in thriller with England
England pulled off a stunning boilover against the Australian relay team, and an issue for Kyle Chalmers from the Tokyo Olympics final reared its head.
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It was a boilover in the men’s 4x100m medley relay with England snatching gold from Australia on the touch and Ian Thorpe put it down to Kyle Chalmers’ swim style.
England’s Tom Dean edged Chalmers to the wall on the final leg with the host nation beating the Aussies by just two-hundredths of a second.
Replays suggested Dean’s last minute decision not to take a short extra stroke for the touch at the finish was the difference but Thorpe highlighted another crucial issue.
Chalmers had swum the tail end of his leg without his rival in eye sight having switched the side he was breathing on.
It was expected Chalmers, in hot form and starting fresh, would mow down Dean and his split time of 46.86s was exceptional, but the Englishman lifted as the crowd roared and he refused to be cowered.
Dean appeared to be just slightly behind Chalmers in the final half dozen strokes, but at the very last gasp he drove hard into the wall, while Chalmers elected to take another short half stroke.
Chalmers and Dean were both breathing to the right on the final lap and so the Australian couldn’t see his opponent.
It’s a case of deja-vu for Chalmers who had the same issue in the 100m freestyle final at the Tokyo Olympics against Caleb Dressel.
“If you can see what’s going on it may have been a different result,” Thorpe said on Channel 7.
“Similar to what happened in the 100m final at the Olympics.”
The difference was just eight-hundredths of a second: England won in 3min31.80s to Australia’s 3mins 31.88.
Scotland won the bronze medal.
Australia had trailed England for the entire race, with dual medal winner backstroker Brad Woodward going out fast, passing to 200m breaststroke champion Zac Stubblety-Cook and then the butterfly silver medallist Matthew Temple.
But the English team was a nose in front at every changeover: led by Brodie Williams, the breaststroke champion James Wilby, the butterflier James Guy and then Dean.
Temple said the rivalry with England was always “neck and neck”.
He said: “We missed the top spot but I’m happy as Larry. We’re always neck and neck, we didn’t get up this time but we’ll get them next time.”
Chalmers was pragmatic afterwards , saying: “it’s nice to get under 47s - I think it’s my 10th time under it, and especially to do it in a relay. It would have been nice to stand on top of the podium, but it’s a good way to finish the week.”
Chalmers said he has been away from home for nine weeks “so it’s nice to be always happy with the results”.
AUSTRALIA’S FAVOURITE MULLET COMES AGONISINGLY CLOSE
stralia’s favourite mullet Rohan Browning was unable to replicate his stunning heat run in the 100m final, finishing sixth.
Running from lane eight, the Flying Mullet seemed to be slow out before closing late to clock 10.20sec.
Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala won the gold in 10.02sec from defending champion South Africa’s Akani Simbine (10.13sec).
Browning, who set his career best of 10.01sec at last year’s Tokyo Olympics, ran 10.10sec to win his heat on Tuesday.
“It’s nice to make a final and go through rounds of running,” Browning said afterwards. “It’s a step in the right direction, I would’ve loved to be on the podium.
“I’m not satisfied, but not to beat up. It’s been one of the season’s, and always learning.
“I thought about after world champs of packing it in and get in some work for next year, but “I’m glad I came here, it’s been a great experience and I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
Australia’s best result of recent times at a Commonwealth Games in the blue riband event is a fourth place by Matt Shirvington back in 1998 when he set an Australian record of 10.03sec.
The last finalist for Australia was Aaron Rouge-Serret who ran 10.30sec to finish fifth at the 2010 Delhi Games.
GOOD GOLLY MISS MOLLY
Australia’s new superstar swimmer Mollie O’Callaghan has combined with her incredible team mates to win the last gold medal in the pool at the Commonwealth Games.
Swimming the freestyle leg, O’Callaghan joined forces with Kaylee McKeown (backstroke), Chelsea Hodges (breaststroke) and Emma McKeon (butterfly) to win the women’s 4x100 metres medley relay.
The Australian combination was the same that won the gold at last year’s Tokyo Olympics, except for O’Callaghan replacing Cate Campbell, who is taking a year off but working in Birmingham as a television pundit.
The Aussies won comfortably - stopping the clock at 3:54.36 - while Canada took the silver and England the bronze.
For O’Callaghan, it was her fifth gold medal in Birmingham while McKeon collected her sixth and McKeown her fourth. It was the first for Hodges.
Australia finished top of the overall medal table with 25 golds.
INSANE RELAY FINISH
Australia have had to settle for silver in the 4x100m medley relay and that race was quite simply un-effing-believable. England led the entire way until Kyle Chalmers hit the pool for the freestyle leg swimming an insane 46.86 to come a fingernail’s length from touching for gold.
Replays show Chalmers opted for an extra stroke on the touch and it helped England to the win.
Not taking away from that time though from Chalmers - insane.
SILVER FOR AUSTRALIABy Joe Barton
Defending champion Brandon Starc has missed out on back-to-back Commonwealth golds by the slimmest of margins.
Starc collected silver in the men’s high jump, with New Zealand’s Hamish Kerr winning gold on countback.
Starc, who won Commonwealth gold on the Gold Coast four years ago with a superb jump of 2.32m, fluctuated between brilliant and nightmarish throughout on Wednesday night.
With his second jump of the night he failed at 2.15m – and on 2.19m was on the verge of an ugly early exit, before advancing on his third attempt.
But something triggered inside Starc after he lay flat on his back following an ugly first attempt at 2.22m.
The 28-year-old comfortably cleared his next two jumps to rocket into medal contention as rivals fell by the wayside.
But the 2.28 mark proved too much for both Starc and Kerr, with the Australian’s earlier misses coming back to haunt him.
GOLD FOR AUSTRALIABy Julian Linden
Ariarne Titmus has captured her fourth gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham after successfully defending her 400m freestyle crown in a tight battle.
Racing against Canadian teenage sensation Summer McIntosh, Titmus got the win in 3:58.06, well outside the world record she set at the Australian trials in May.
Just 15, McIntosh took the silver, only about a body length behind, in 3:59.32, more than 10 seconds quicker than what Titmus, now 21, was swimming when she was 15.
Australia’s Kiah Melverton won the bronze.
Titmus entered four events in Birmingham and won the lot - 200m freestyle, 400m freestyle, 800m freestyle and 4x200m freestyle.
McIntosh won golds in the 200m and 400m individual medleys but is expected to be a serious challenge to Titmus in the 400m at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
5:34AM: AUSSIE GOLDBy Julian Linden
Short blitzed the field to win gold in the 1,500m metres freestyle at the Commonwealth Games on Thursday morning, surging up the rankings of Australia’s all-time long-distance greats.
The 18-year-old Short turned the longest race in the pool into a procession after he regained the lead from Northern Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen at the 900m mark,then surged clear to win in 14:48.54.
That slashed almost nine seconds off his previous best time - set at last year’s Olympic trials when he was controversially left off the team for Tokyo - and moved him to fifth place on the Australian rankings, behind Grant Hackett, Mack Horton, Kieren Perkins and Jack McLoughlin.
Wiffen held on to take the silver medal while the bronze went to England’s Luke Turley and Australia’s Kieren Pollard was fifth.
One of Australia’s brightest prospects in freestyle distance swimming, Short also won a silver in the 400m behind his world champion team mate Elijah Winnington and ahead of Horton.
5:17AM AUSSIES CLEARED DESPITE POSITIVE TEST
World champion Kelsey-Lee Barber and 1500m star Jessica Hull have both been cleared to compete in Birmingham after recovering from Covid.
Barber was forced to isolate in the Australian team camp in Tonbridge last week after contracting the virus but she has joined her teammates at the Commonwealth Games.
The two-time world javelin champion is chasing a missing medal in her set - she won bronze at the Tokyo Olympics - as she finished runner-up on the Gold Coast four years ago.
Barber will be joined by world championships finalist Mackenzie Little and defending Commonwealth champion Kathryn Mitchell in Sunday’s final.
Hull tested positive a day after she ran in the 1500m final at the world championships in Eugene, Oregon.
4:25AM AUSSIES SMASH THE FAST FOOD
What does every athlete crave once a major competition has ended? Fast food apparently and that’s just what Aussie swim champion Elijah Winnington sought out after his impressive medal haul at the Commonwealth Games.
Fresh from winning gold in the 400m freestyle and 4x200m free relay and then bronze in the 200m, Winnington admitted that it was all pizza, ice cream and Spongbob.
“I will put my hand up, I think I’ve had pizza every meal since I finished swimming on Day 4,” he told Channel 7. “So I’ve had about...I mean, it’s only been, what, two days and I think I had maybe seven or eight pizzas.
“I actually went straight to the village where there’s a little shop, you can buy these massive tubs of Ben & Jerry ice-cream. (I thought) Alright, I’ll get one, treat myself. It will last me two days...I sat down and watched an episode of ‘SpongeBob’ and it was gone by the end of it.”
Winnington is well known for posting SpongeBob SquarePants content on his Instagram account. An avid fan of the cartoon, it’s his go to show pre- and post races.
“Everyone knows that’s my thing,” he added.
“Calms me down, gets me ready. No-one can hate on me, it’s the greatest show on earth. It’s all over my Instagram.
“People actually think that I’m just having a laugh, but it’s actually a good show. I think I just find it so hilariously funny.”
ROOKIE ERROR: JAMAICA STAR MOCKED FOR RACE BLUNDER
A valuable lesson to all sprinters – run until the very end.
It’s a lesson Nigel Ellis will never forget after the Jamaican eased off, even leaning backwards as he crossed the line in the men’s 100m heats. A costly error and a rookie mistake which cost him spot in the semis.
Social media had a field day with the blunder saying he’d “pulled a Shericka” referring to Ellis’s compatriot Shericka Jackson who jogged over the line in the Olympic heats last year - a move which ended her campaign.
While a costly for Jamaican, it was terrific for Australia with our man Jake Doran leaning into his finish and securing his spot in the next round with a time of 10.30 just two one-hundredths of a second faster than his third-placed rival.
Doran is one of two Aussies to make it to the semi-finals with Rohan ‘The Flying Mullet’ Browning putting his world championships debacle behind him by cruising through to the Commonwealth Games semi-finals.
Browning didn’t get out of the heats in Eugene last month but the Flying Mullet was back in town, finishing 10.10sec.
CUTHBERT SHOCKS WITH SURPRISE SILVER
By Simeon Thomas-Wilson
Zoe Cuthbert has produced the ride of her life to come away with a silver medal in the cross country mountain bike at the Commonwealth Games.
England’s world champion Evie Richards took out the women’s race as expected.
But the 21-year-old Cuthbert put in a sensational ride to come away with a silver.
Early on in the race of seven 4.8km laps around Cannock Chase, Cuthbert’s medal chances looked to be in some trouble when she was off the top three placings.
But she got stronger and stronger throughout the race to claim a sensational silver.
Richards did have a scare when she over-cooked a corner and had to unclip and get off her bike on the grass in the final stages of the fifth lap, with Cuthbert seriously eating into her time.
But the Englishwoman re-established the gap and came home for the win.
It meant there was a battle for silver between Cuthbert and South Africa’s Candice Lill.
Cuthbert was able to create a significant gap on her rival going into the final lap and she was able to keep that lead en route to the biggest achievement of her career.
‘MOODY BAST**D’: STAR APOLOGISES FOR DISRESPECT
A day after saying he was not bothered by the Commonwealth Games and that the Olympics was more important, England’s swimming hero Adam Peaty has apologised for being a ‘moody bast**d’.
Peaty was slammed for his comments by former swimmer Mark Foster who accused the breaststroke champion of disrespecting the event - particularly given he is a paid ambassador of Birmingham 2022.
Peaty, who broke his foot just 10 weeks ago and had been in doubt for the Games, made the comments after his era of invincibility in the men’s 100m breaststroke was ended by compatriot James Wilby in a shock upset.
He rebounded to win gold in the 50m breaststroke before issuing the apology.
“I hold myself accountable for that,” Peaty said.
“But you know, people don’t understand the lowest of lows. Mark hasn’t done it in a very long time.“As an athlete at that moment, I was at the lowest. I had nothing else to say, nothing else to do, I was like ‘I’m retiring here’. And that was my kind of scapegoat.
“I can be a mardy b**tard! It does mean a lot to me. You can see that. But I want to say sorry to everyone who has worked hard to get to these Games.”
8:22PM HOCKEYROOS WILL RIP APART ANY THREAT
By Joe Barton
Australia’s dual-gold ambitions in the hockey are firmly in hand, with the Hockeyroos ready to ‘rip apart’ everyone who stands in their path.
Australia finished the pool stages with a perfect record, conceding zero goals en route to topping Pool B which finished with a well-deserved 2-0 win over Scotland on Wednesday.
While the Kookaburras have rocketed through their pool, banging in goals left, right and centre, the women have had to scrap and fight for every win.
And so it was against Scotland, with the Hockeyroos dominating possession and moving the ball beautifully out of defence and through the midfield – but without the goal rush to show for it.
Yet, when Shanea Tonkin finished off a classy team goal early in the fourth quarter, Australia was on their way to a fourth straight win and building towards banishing the cruel memories of their Gold Coast gold medal defeat four years ago.
“We know if we play our way that we will be able to rip apart anyone,” said defender Karri Sommerville.
“So that’s the plan.”
8:00PM STAR POSTS UPDATE AFTER FREAK CRASH
English cyclist Matt Walls has shared a photo from his hospital bed just days after a freak accident at the velodrome saw him and his bike catapulted into the crowd injuring himself and spectators.
There were fears Walls had sustained significant injuries when paramedics put privacy barriers up around him as he was treated on the floor where he’d crashed into a number of fans.
The action at the velodrome was suspended and all members of the public were asked to leave while Walls received treatment.
Incredibly, the 24-year-old avoided serious injury and was discharged from hospital 24 hours after the accident with stitches to his head.
Two other riders were hospitalized and two members of the public were left bloodied and bruised.
Walls’s parents were not at the velodrome but had watched in horror as the incident was broadcast on TV.
His mum Lorraine ran from her hotel to the velodrome for news on her son.
“It was a horrible time but after 45 minutes, we heard Matt was conscious and Lorraine arrived at the velodrome and we could all relax,” Walls father Larry said.
“I was watching the Games live on TV and Lorraine ran from hotel to velodrome after hearing about the crash.
“Lorraine and Matt’s girlfriend Fleur visited him in hospital and he was in good form and got checked out in the evening back to the hotel.”
7:25PM BRITISH HERO’S COMM GAMES VERDICT RAISES EYEBROWS
Tyson Otto
English swimming goliath Adam Peaty has apologised over an “arrogant” interview that followed his incredible collapse in the 100m breaststroke at the Commonwealth Games on Monday.
Peaty’s defeat in the event he has owned for 10 years left Aussie legend Ian Thorpe staggered. It was a result almost nobody saw coming.
The world record holder had been undefeated in the 100m breaststroke at major meets since 2014. He had qualified fastest for the final and led the event with 25m to go.
However, English teammate James Wilby pushed ahead of him to take the gold.
The magnitude of the boilover was written all over Wilby’s stunned face as he looked up to the big screen to see that he had won.
With Aussies Zac Stubblety-Cook and Sam Williamson exploding at the death, Peaty suddenly went from the gold medal position to missing out on the podium completely.
It has been an explosive fallout to the result, with the 27-year-old declaring he won’t be coming back to the Commonwealth Games in four years.
It followed a social media backlash over comments that have been branded “arrogant” by fans.
Peaty spoke to the BBC on the pooldeck after finishing outside the medals and said losing in the Commonwealth Games meant little to him after already scooping up three Olympic gold medals.
“It doesn’t feel amazing, but it doesn’t feel bad either,” Peaty said.
“It’ll probably be my last attempt tomorrow, but I’m not bothered about it. The Commonwealths to me, in the grand scheme of things … it’s about two years time (the Olympics).
“That’s no disrespect. I’m still four weeks into my program, I can’t put that expectation on myself.”
Retired English swimmer Mark Foster responded to Peaty’s comments, saying: “I think he’s trying to say it doesn’t matter, but it does matter.
“It’s the Commonwealth Games, it’s a multi-sport event and I think when he was growing up, the Commonwealth Games would have been a big deal.
“But the fact that he’s won lots of Worlds and Olympic Games, maybe he’s trying to play it down to himself that it doesn’t matter.”
The Birmingham Mail reported fans on social media said Peaty’s comments were “arrogant” and “disrespectful”.
“Adam Peaty is disrespectful to every other athlete at the Commonwealth Games. Acting like he doesn’t care. While all the other athletes are trying their best to win medals,” one Twitter user wrote.
Another posted: “Adam Peaty, I think you need to take a deep breath, have a word with yourself and take a look at the para swimmers. Used to really respect you and what you were trying to achieve, but feel let down by tonight’s comments.”
World record-holder Peaty qualified second-fastest for the 50m breaststroke final, scheduled for Wednesday morning, behind Australia’s Sam Williamson.
After moving through to the final, which he subsequently won, Peaty appeared to apologise for his comments.
He wrote on Twitter: “Thankful for all the supportful messages I’m getting at the moment. It has been an incredibly hard time the past few months, but mostly the last few days.
“Sometimes in the heat of the moment my emotions better me and I can’t speak with a clear mind.”
6:34PM SHOCK SCENES AS RUNNER COLLAPSES DURING 100M
The Sun
Sprint star Ayanda Malaza suffered a heartbreaking injury during his bid for glory at the Commonwealth Games.
The 19-year-old broke down in tears as he was removed from the track in a wheelchair after pulling up in his 100m heat on Tuesday.
Malaza, from Eswatini, looked to be in discomfort as he set off from the blocks.
The race had already suffered a false start when Nigeria’s Godson Oke Oghenebrume began too early.
And Malaza unfortunately tweaked something the second time around.
He collapsed to the ground as his rivals continued their surge towards the finish line.
Malaza could be seen clutching his hamstring as he waved his arm for attention.
And medics quickly rushed to the scene as Malaza began crying.
There was no chance of the star being able to walk off the track.
And so a wheelchair was brought out to transport Malaza away for further treatment.
It’s not the first unfortunate incident to befall this year’s Games.
Cyclist Matt Walls escaped serious injury after crashing into the crowd at the London velodrome on Sunday.
And the women’s 10km Scratch Race saw a rider fall from her bike before being run over by an opponent.
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