Key events
Badminton: It is Malaysian who have won the second mixed doubles game in the mixed team event, to level that 1-1 with England. That goes to a third and deciding game now.
women’s hockey: Scotland have eased up a bit against Kenyanonly adding one goal in the second quarter, so they lead 7-0 at the halfway point.
Gold in men’s 81kg weightlifting for England’s Chris Murray!
Men’s 81kg weightlifting: England‘s Chris Murray set a Commonwealth Games record of a combined 326kg to go into first place, then Kyle Bruce of Australia tried to beat it. It wasn’t the cleanest of lifts, and the judges wanted a replay – then it failed. Bruce appealed – unsuccessfully.
Nicolas Vachon of Canada then had the last lift – he put 7kg on the bar, when he only needed 6kg for gold. An inexplicable decision. He dropped the bar behind him after a wonderful lift, so it is no lift.
Gold for England! Silver for Australia! Bronze for Canada! Confusion for me!
(I also feel like Team England may have been casting sprays on my weightlifting expertise on Twitter.)
Anyone else have someone with them who is suddenly an expert in weightlifting!?
COME ON CHRIS MURRAY!!!#BringItHome
— Team England (@TeamEngland) August 1, 2022
Men’s 81kg weightlifting: This contest has got to the sharp end and in contention for the medals are Chris Murray of England, Kyle Bruce Australia, Ajay Singh of India and Nicolas Vachon of Canada. Singh is ahead on 319, Murray and Bruce are tied on 318.
women’s hockey: Scotland are leading Kenyan 6-0 at the end of the first quarter. The Kenyans have previously been beaten 16-0 by New Zealand and 8-0 by Australia at these games, so you fear for them here again.
Badminton: I’m going to confess I’m not a Badminton expert, but I do know that England have just won the opening game in the mixed doubles in the semi-final of the mixed team event against Malaysian. Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith beat Chan Peng Soon and Cheah Yee See 21-12. They’ve started the second game now.
women’s hockey: Earlier in Pool A, wales‘ women won their first match of the group stages, with a 4-0 win over Ghana.
If you need a reminder of how it works, there are two pools of five teams in a round-robin format. The top two in each pool go through to semi-finals which are on Friday.
The Pool A standings are currently England and India tied on six points each after two matches, Canada and wales both have three points, but Wales have played a match more than the Canadians. Canada play Ghana tomorrow at 11am, while England and India will play at 2pm in a match likely to decide who wins the group.
Women’s hockey: Scotland are playing Kenyan and we are currently having a video referee referral. Scotland were already leading 1-0, when a goalbound shot was cleared off the line, but with the wrong side of the stick. The resulting penalty stroke has been converted, so Scotland now lead 2-0. And in fact Jennifer Eadie has just immediately made it 3-0 while I was typing that. There are nine minutes remaining in the first quarter.
Good morning, it is Martin Belam here. A curious beast, the Commonwealth Games, but one thing you can’t complain about is the sheer volume of sport going on. Give me a moment while I set up my 1,057 different iPlayer streams.
Thanks for joining me for the early stint. The good news for you is that Martin Belam is lined up to take you through the coming hours.
Peaty: “I didn’t even do a warm up, I wasn’t that bothered. I only had two hours sleep.
“I am going to have a strong winter, I haven’t had one in two years. I need to reset.
“People don’t appreciate it, why would they? Going through a five-year period as Olympic champion is pressure.”
Swimming: Peaty and Houlie finish in a dead heat. He looked in reasonable nick over the shorter difference but still plenty to do.
Swimming: Here comes the men’s 50m breaststroke heats. James Wilby, the 100m champion, takes second in the fourth heat. Australia’s Grayson Bell speeds through in first.
Surely the loser should buy the dog…
Men’s bowls: Wales and England shake hands. England looked in fine fettle and the Welsh could not keep up, resulting in a 15-5 victory.
Some athletics news…
Men’s bowls: It is 14-5 to England against Wales in the treble semi-final. The standard is incredibly high and the English seem to be edging every end at the moment to extend their lead. We are 15 ends down, can Wales get back into this?
table tennis: Australia have seen off Wales in the women’s team bronze match opener 11-5 11-5 11-8.
Beach volleyball: There might not be a beach in Birmingham but there will be some sand at Smithfield today and the teams will have the weather for it. It’ll be like the Copacabana eats 7pm.
Men’s bowls: It is 10-5 to England against Wales in the triples after 12 ends in their semi-final.
Swimming: Adam Peaty is back in the pool in the 50m breaststroke heats at 10.45am or so. He finished fourth in the 100m final yesterday so he will be hoping to do better today.
Men’s bowls: Tomlinson nails it with the final roll of the 10th end to earn three points for Wales to move the score on to 8-5. It’s a tense one.
Cycling: Some reaction to yesterday’s crash at VeloPark.
Men’s bowls: England are 7-2 up on Wales after eight ends in their treble semi-final. It is a pretty tight contest at Victoria Park in the sunshine.
Preamble
It is another action-packed day in Birmingham. We will have everything from hockey to weightlifting with a little bit of gymnastics thrown in for good measure.
There are medals up for grabs in all sorts of events, including bowls and cycling. Hopefully it will be a calmer day on the track after the dramatic crash which saw Matt Walls going over the side and into the crowd during a race, resulting in the curtailing of the session. Thankfully, he and everyone else seem to be all right.
Going into the evening we will have some pretty exciting swimming on our hands. We start with the 100m men’s freestyle final and conclude with the 4x200m relay of the same discipline, with plenty packed in between.
It should be another cracking day aided by some decent weather to boot in Birmingham.