Australia has had a double-medal finish in the men’s decathlon for the first time in a century in an extraordinary end to the event on Saturday morning (AEST).
Daniel Golubovic and Cedric Dubler fell agonizingly short as they desperately tried to steal the gold medal from Grenada’s Victor Lindon in the final 1500m run.
Dubler, a national hero from his viral act of mateship during at the Tokyo Olympics, went into the final night session with a lead of 39 points with only the javelin and 1500m to go.
However, he was brought undone by a fifth place finish in the javelin and simply had too many points to try and catch up in the 1500m.
Golubovic put together a colossal effort in the final event, crossing the finish line first to take the silver medal with a final score of 8197 points.
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Daniel Golubovic congratulates an exhausted Lindon Victor at the finish line. Photo by Ben Stansall / AFP.Source: AFPCedric Dubler and Daniel Golubović.Source: AFP
Lindon was more than 100m behind Golubovic as the Aussie crossed the line.
With the Grenadian looking dead on his feet with 25m to run, it suddenly appeared that Golubovic was about to take the gold. He needed to win by more than 23 seconds.
However, Lindon fell over the line with two seconds to spare. Dubler, who took the bronze medal, Golubovic and Lindon were all left waiting to see the exact results show up on the big screen before they could learn who had won the gold medal.
It eventually showed up on the screen that Lindon had done enough to fall over the line with a final score of 8233. Dubler finished with 8030.
Golubovic was smiling through the heartbreak at the end of the race.
Lindon Victor and Kurt Felix of Team Grenada, Harry Kendall of Team England, Alec Diamond, Daniel Golubovic and Cedric Dubler of Team Australia and Karo Iga of Team Papua New Guinea celebrate at the end of their ten events. Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images.Source: Getty Images
“Thank you, I had to dig for that,” Golubovic said afterwards.
“It is cold out here and there is nothing in the works. Two decathlons in 12 days – I don’t recommend it.
“It’s been an incredible experience, coming down and moving back to Australia and back to Brisbane during COVID, it’s been a wild few years and it’s been a long process to get here. It feels so good to be on this stage right now.
He said he is looking forward to getting some sleep after completing two decathlon events in the space of two weeks, after also competing at the world championships in Oregon last month.
“Tired. Very tired,” he said when asked how he felt in an interview with Channel 7.
“It was a tough race, I knew it was going to be, I had to leave everything out on the line and we did just that, that was every possible thing I could leave out on the track, and it landed where it did, but I am so incredibly proud to have performed the way I did and backed it up two times in a row and to have it come down to the 1500 was a lot of fun.”
Australian sporting icon Bruce McAvaney just couldn’t resist.
The 69-year-old randomly dropped a reference to former Aussie sprinter Matt Shirvington’s “tight shorts” during Seven’s coverage of the Commonwealth Games.
The colorful caller was speaking before the men’s 200m semi-finals at Alexander Stadium in Birmingham after Shirvington had crossed to the commentary team from a Channel 7 studio.
“Let’s go back to Bruce,” Shirvington said.
“It’s the men’s 200m and I’m jealous. There’s a nice little tailwind for them.”
McAvaney responded: “You would like to put the shorts back on, wouldn’t you.
“And they were tight.”
The call got a brief giggle out of Channel 7 athletics commentator Tamsyn Manou.
The comment may or may not be related to McAvaney’s revelation on Friday that he has been getting less than three hours sleep a night in Birmingham.
McAvaney is commenting in the UK for the event where he is covering his fifth Commonwealth Games. The most popular sports caller in the country has also covered 11 Olympics.
More than 15 years after he hung up his track spikes, Shirvington still boasts the most famous lunch box in Australian sport — as immortalized by the commentary of comedian Billy Birmingham in The Twelfth Man.
Shirvington’s thunder is still a small part of Aussie sprint sensation Rohan Browning’s story. The 24-year-old, who finished sixth in the final of the 100m at the Commonwealth Games on Thursday morning, has previously laughed about not wanting to be compared to the Channel 7 presenter.
When Browning made history last year by becoming the first Australian to qualify for the men’s 100m event at an Olympics in 17 years, he was stitched up in a photo post on the World Athletics website which featured an unflattering close-up of his crotch.
Browning responded to the photo with a light-hearted tweet: “Can someone from World Athletics update my profile cover shot please? Don’t want to draw Shirvo comparisons”.
LIVE — Australians will compete for gold medals in at least seven events on day eight of the Commonwealth Games as the nation aims to hold off hosts England in Birmingham.
Australia heads into Friday’s competition sitting on top of the medal tally with 51 golds — nine more than England — as well as 42 silver and 39 bronze.
And it could be plenty more by the close of the day with at least three medals on offer in athletics, two in diving, and one each in lawn bowls and artistic gymnastics.
Follow all the action in Birmingham in our live blog below!
FULL MEDAL TALLY LIVE >
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Australians are also in the hunt for wrestling medals in the women’s 57kg (Irene Symeonidis), men’s 65kg (Mustafa Rezaeifar), and men’s 86kg (Jayden Lawrence), starting with the quarterfinals stages from 7.30pm.
Meanwhile, Australia’s Cedric Dubler headed into the final day of the decathlon sitting in second.
Dubler then won the first decathlon event for the night, the 110m hurdles, with a time of 14.20 — good enough for another 949 points. That has moved him one point into the lead over Lindon Victor.
Also in athletics, Jess Hull will compete in the 1500m heats, while Brooke Buschkuehl will be in action in qualifying for long jump.
Celeste Mucci ran a strong 100m hurdles heat, matching her personal best time of 12.96, which saw her finish third.
Comeback star Michelle Jenneke was up next and comfortably finished second with a time of 12.63 to go through to the end on Sunday night. The time is the fastest she’s ever run the event, although it does not count as an official PB due to big tailwinds.
In the 1500m women’s heats, Abbey Caldwell and Linden Hall have progressed to the final after finishing inside the top four of their race with times of 4:13.59 and 4:14.08 respectively.
Away from the track, Australia’s Hockeyroos will have the chance to win a guaranteed medal when they take on India in the semi-final.
Dennis SCORCHES field to take TT gold | 00:28
You can track the live medal tally for every country here, with key Aussie wins and updates as they happen.
AUSSIES GOING FOR MEDALS ON DAY 8 (all times AEST)
Lawn Bowls
9pm — For mixed pairs B2/B3 finals
diving
8.18pm — men’s synchronized 3m springboard final
3.05am — women’s 1m springboard final (qualifying at 7.05pm)
4.23am — men’s synchronized 10m platform final
Gymnastics – rhythmic
10.30pm — Individual all-around final
Athletics
4.55am — men’s T53/54 1500m final
6.42am—women’s 3000m steeplechase final
7.15pm – 6.27am — men’s decathlon
Hockey
5am — women’s semi-final vs. India
OTHER KEY EVENTS (times AEST)
Athletics
Women’s long jump qualifying — Brooke Buschkuel — 8.40pm
Men’s decathlon — Cedric Dubler, Daniel Golubovic, Alex Diamond — 7.15pm
Round of 16 – Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Women’s Doubles – Kaitlyn Ea/Angela Yu (AUS) v Yujia Jin/Jia Ying Crystal Wong (SGP), Hsuan-Yu Wendy Chen/Gronya Somerville (AUS) v Elena Johnson /Chloe Le Tissier (GGY)
TABLE TENNIS (from 6.30pm)
Mixed Doubles Round 3 and Quarterfinals; Men’s Class Semi Finals; Women’s Class Semi Finals; Women’s Singles Round 2; Men’s Doubles Round 3 and Quarterfinals; Women’s Doubles Round 2 – Chunyi Feng/ Yangzi Liu (AUS) v Shanecia Delpesche/Jessica MC Carter (SVG), Minhyung Jee/Jian Fang Lay (AUS) v TBA; Men’s Singles – Dillon Chambers (AUS) v Zhe Yu Clarence Chew (SGP), Finn Luu (AUS) v Sharath Kamal Achanta (IND), Nicholas Lum (AUS) v Javen Choong (MAS)
