Category: Sports

Australia rediscovered their winning feeling on day nine of the Commonwealth Games as Kurtis Marschall successfully defended his gold medal in the men’s pole vault to conclude a day on which the nation added a further nine golds to their tally.

While Australia stalled on day eight in Birmingham, the golds came with a rush from early until late on Saturday, moving onto 59 in the medal table, nine ahead of nearest rivals England who reached the half century mark with two days of competition remaining.

Marschall joined the great Steve Hooker – the man who inspired him to take up the sport – in winning back-to-back pole vault titles after clearing 5.70m to beat the English duo of Adam Hague and Harry Coppell, who took silver and bronze respectively .

Earlier Ollie Hoare evoked memories of Australian legend Herb Elliott with a remarkable last stride triumph in the men’s 1500 meters to end a 64-year drought in the race. The 25-year-old timed his run to perfection at Alexander Stadium when setting a new Games record of 3:30.12.

Jemima Montag started the Australian momentum in the 10km walk, crediting her resilience to the genetics she inherited from her grandmother Judith, a holocaust survivor. A gold medalist in the 20km walk on the Gold Coast four years ago, she put in a title-winning performance in a race confined to the track and to 10km on Saturday.

Montag wears a gold bracelet honoring her grandmother, who died shortly before last year’s Tokyo Olympics. With an aunt, she went through her old love letters from her after the Tokyo Olympics, having them translated, to piece together more about her grandmother’s extraordinary resilience from her.

“In some letters and journal entries, she wrote about just trying to make it through the next hour and next day, and [to] meet her dad at the gate with a piece of bread,” she said.

“What I take from that is… she teaches me to take one step at a time and it also puts things into perspective. Towards the end of the Holocaust, they marched through snow and cold for days on end in little sandals and hardly any clothing. She and her sister took waistbands and tied their wrists together and said, ‘We are getting through this together or not at all’.”

Melissa Wu is someone used to combining well. Competing in her fifth Commonwealth Games, the diving champion added another remarkable flourish to her resume by partnering Charli Petrov, a 14-year-old who is half the age of Wu, to gold in the 10m synchronized platform event. Maddison Keeney and Anabelle Smith also performed beautifully, twisting and turning and landing their dives perfectly to beat a talented field in the 3m synchronized springboard.

On the bowling green in Leamington Spa, Ellen Ryan and Kristina Krstic won a thriller and were later joined by Aaron Wilson, who was a dominant 21-3 victor over Northern Ireland’s Gary Kelly. “It’s absolutely amazing to get the job done. I’m over the moon at the moment,” Wilson said.

At Arena Birmingham, Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva completed a full set of medals for the Games with a gold medal in the clubs final of the rhythmic gymnastics while in table tennis Yang Qian won gold in the women’s 6-10 class when too strong for compatriot Lei Lina in the end. There was also cause for joy in team events as well, with several medals to be decided in the final two days of competition.

The Diamonds defeated England in the netball and will play Jamaica, their conquerors in a pool game on Thursday, in the final on Sunday, while Australia’s cricketers will clash with India in a blockbuster final at Edgbaston Stadium after proving too strong for New Zealand.

Both beach volleyball teams will fri for gold after strong semi-final performances. So, too, the men’s hockey team, who have progressed to the decider on Monday.

But amid the joy there were some disappointments. Eleanor Patterson claimed the high jump world championship a fortnight ago, but she had to settle for a silver medal after jumping a height of 1.92m, three centimeters from the gold.

The difficult tour experienced by sprinter Rohan Browning continued when he tripped and fell in a heat of the 4x100m relay, ending Australia’s hopes of success.

Scott McLaughlin has stormed to pole position for the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix, beating Formula 1 podium finisher Romain Grosjean to top spot.

The Team Penske pilot laid down a 1:14.5555s at the death to usurp his rival Andretti Autosport, edging out the Frenchman by a mere 0.1420s at the checkered flag.

It marks just the second pole position effort for the three-time Supercars champion, who last started on pole position in the season-opener at St Petersburg, which he went on to win.

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That time around, he was also carrying support from DEX Imaging who are among McLaughlin’s rotating sponsors.

“I tell you what, this DEX car is really good man,” said McLaughlin.

“We’ve been going really fast in this car. We won the St Pete opener with it, won Mid-Ohio and the guys were in those suits, and now we’re on pole at Nashville which is an amazing race track.

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“Really proud of the DEX Imaging Chevy and the guys. The car was phenomenal. To do that on one-lap used tyres, it was the fastest lap of the qualifying session I think. It’s just one of those good laps.

“We’ve just got to keep focus and keep our heads down bums up and focus on what we need to do. Proud of this group, proud of this team. I know I’m going to have really good pit stops tomorrow. Thirsty threes have got plenty of support, so we’ll have a little bit of fun.”

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard continued his practice pace and will start from third alongside Chip Ganassi Racing’s leading driver Alex Palou.

McLaren SP ace Pato O’Ward and McLaughlin’s teammate Josef Newgarden rounded out the Firestone Fast Six.

Will Power clocked a lap in the second leg of qualifying good enough to get him into the shootout. However, he was stripped of his best lap for drawing a yellow flag after a mistake saw him take to the escape road.

Power will start eighth just behind David Malukas of Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports.

The top 12 saw some unfamiliar names after an awkward incident involving Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta brought out the red flag.

That left Simon Pagenaud, Felix Rosenqvist and Alexander Rossi stranded and unable to clock a lap to break into Q2.

Instead, Jack Harvey and Dalton Kellett made it through, qualifying 11th and 12th respectively. Meanwhile, Pagenaud was 13th, Rosenqvist 15th and Rossi only 17th.

McLaughlin’s countryman Scott Dixon narrowly missed out on advancing from the group stages and will start 14th.

The Big Machine Music City Grand Prix is ​​live, ad-free and exclusively on Stan Sport from Monday at 5.00am.

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Incredible exhausts: The worst crashes in motorsport history

The NRL’s match review committee has charged Jaeman Salmon for the incident that incensed Raiders coach Ricky Stuart.

Salmon has been hit with a grade one contrary conduct charge and can accept a $1000 fine for making contact with the private parts and head of Canberra hooker Tom Starling.

While being tackled, Salmon’s boot made the contact which left Starling on the ground in pain.

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Penrith is reportedly exploring legal options on behalf of young playmaker Salmon against Stuart for his stunning outburst, in which he called the 23-year-old a “weak gutted dog person” and claimed he had been since he was a child.

While he initially refused to back down from the comments on Saturday night, Stuart on Sunday apologized for the public spray.

“I regret what I did on that platform (press conference) after the game,” he said in a statement to Nine’s Danny Weidler.

“I was speaking as a father and not as a football coach.

“I allowed my emotions to get the better of me and for that I’m sorry. There is a history between Jaeman Salmon and my family that I will not go into.

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“I should not have brought it up after the game, but it just got the better of me. I am truly sorry.”

Earlier, Brad Fittler said he was shocked by Stuart labeling Salmon a “weak gutted dog person” for kicking Starling – whether it was intentional or not.

“Jaeman Salmon might have something to answer for, kicking around like that. It was a long time ago that was considered OK,” Fittler told Nine’s Sports Sunday.

Ricky apologizes for Salmon outburst

“I was a bit in shock when I heard the (Stuart) comment.

“I don’t know what the history is, but it will be interesting to see what happens with the NRL and Ricky.”

The Sydney Morning Herald now reports Stuart’s anger stems from an incident in 2010, when his son and Salmon were playing in the same under 12s team.

While the exact incident is not specified, the report claims Stuart – then Cronulla’s NRL coach – was so incensed that he approached a young Salmon, whose father stood up for his son and almost got in a physical altercation with the rugby league legend.

NRL chief Andrew Abdo confirmed the integrity unit is investigating the comments from Saturday.

“It’s a disappointing situation,” Abdo told the Herald.

“This happened last night and everyone deserves due process. We will get all the facts before making a decision.”

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Commonwealth Games in pictures: Netball semi-final delayed after a player broke the goal post

England will play for Commonwealth bronze in the women’s Twenty20, letting slip a golden opportunity in their semi-final against India.

With huge home support in a full house at Edgbaston, they survived a withering assault from Smriti Mandhana, who had India going at 10 runs per over while raising her fifty in 23 balls, before England pulled back the total to 164 for five.

They then had the chase in hand, needing 33 runs from four overs, but after Amy Jones and Natalie Sciver were run out, England fell four runs short. India advance to the final where they will play Australia, who chased down New Zealand’s 145 target with just three balls to spare in the second semi-final.

India had a sizeable contingent of supporters in attendance, and the stands were rocking through the first seven overs as Mandhana put the bowlers to the sword. It was an innings that mixed the left-hander’s signature elegance with immense power. She used Issy Wong’s pace to hit a flat pull shot for six, added another from Sciver’s medium-pace over midwicket and launched Sarah Glenn’s leg-break over long-on.

In between times she drove through the covers and swept the spinners to the fence with immaculate placement, breaking her own India record for the fastest half-century in the format.

Shafali Verma just kept her company as they put on 73 runs from the first seven overs. That was when Freya Kemp had Verma caught trying to hit big down the ground, then Sciver tricked Mandhana with a slower ball that she scooped to short fine-leg, ending her innings on 61 from 32 balls.

That start set up India’s total, with Jemimah Rodrigues adding 44 from 31, shifting around the crease to create boundary gaps over cover or midwicket. England did manage to bowl some tidy overs, keeping Harmanpreet Kaur and Deepti Sharma to around a run a ball, meaning their run chase was 10-20 runs lighter than had seemed likely.

England started even faster than India had, despite losing Sophia Dunkley lbw for 19, but racking up 42 for one after four overs, compared to India’s 40 for none. Wides and no-balls from Renuka Singh Thakur in the opening over helped the score along, Dunkley swung hard, Danni Wyatt started threading shots through the off side, and Alice Capsey was again promoted to No 3 after Dunkley fell.

But the teenager who has provided a lot of England’s runs made a mistake befitting her age with her score on 13, when she hared off for a second run despite the ball being on its way back to the wicketkeeper from backward point. Turning back to the non-striker’s end, Capsey dived in but had turned her bat upside down and the ridge on the back of her lifted it. She was above her ground but not in it.

Wyatt had a similarly self-inflicted dismissal on 35, stepping outside off stump but missing a scoop, the ball bouncing off her pad back on to her stumps. Now it was India’s turn to claw back ascendancy, bowling tightly to Sciver and Jones with quiet overs from Pooja Vastrakar, Radha Yadav and Deepti Sharma.

“They made it hard for us,” Sciver said. “Bowled really well, restricted us, took away our boundary options.”

The 16th over looked to have swung the match again, with Harmanpreet turning to part-time spinner Verma for one over too many, belted by Jones and Sciver for 15. That gave England an equation they would have liked, with seven wickets in hand.

But Deepti and Sneh Rana turned the screws again with a fine exhibition of off-spin, increasing the desperation with Jones run out sprinting a single, then Sciver the same trying to get back for a second run, one ball after a mighty pull for six .

That left 13 runs required from the final over and England should look back over their decision-making with Maia Bouchier and Katherine Brunt sent in ahead of the more natural six-hitter Sophie Ecclestone.

Ecclestone backed that up by coolly driving her second ball over the rope. But by then it was the final ball of the match and the chance of gold had already passed England by. India will now have that opportunity against Australia.