Commonwealth Games

Luke-E

Wednesday 22nd March 2006
Sotherton: gold medal

Olympic bronze medallist Kelly Sotherton has claimed gold in the heptathlon at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne with England team-mate Jessica Ennis taking bronze.
Leading going into the second day of competition, Sotherton extended her advantage after a leap of 6.51 in the long jump, but endured a miserable time in the javelin to take a 104 point into the final event - the 800m.

She kept her cool in that race to ensure gold, while Ennis - who had been second - was forced to settle for bronze by Australian Kylie Wheeler who produced a strong run.

Elsewhere on the track, Darren Campbell was disqualified from the 200m after running out of his lane in the heats.

Martyn Bernard of Birmingham ensured another English medal after taking silver in the high jump, but was left clearly angered by a confrontation with officials before his final attempt to take gold from Canadian Mark Boswell.

Shooter Sheena Sharp ensured Scotland's best-ever performance at a Commonwealth Games by claiming her second, and her country's ninth gold medal in Melbourne, and the Scots then added a tenth in the men's bowls pairs final where Alec Marshall and Paul Foster edged out English rivals Mark Bantock and Ian Bond.

Sharp clinched gold in the women's 50m rifle prone singles which adds to her triumph in the pairs event with Susan Jackson.

David Phelps sealed Wales' third gold of the Games after emerging victorious in the men's 50m rifle prone singles ahead of England's Michael Babb, while David Beattie claimed a silver for Northern Ireland, their second medal overall, after a three-way shoot-off in the two-day men's trap competition.

In the pool, England took bronze in the 3m synchronised springboard diving through Tandi Lindegaard and Hayley Sage, but were bundled out of the basketball competition at the semi-final stage by hosts Australia after a 101-75 defeat.

England's men's hockey team gave themselves a chance of qualifying for the final four after beating Canada 5-1 and now need hosts Australia to beat neighbours New Zealand to confirm their semi-final berth.

Medal winners:

Athletics:

Heptathlon:
1 Kelly Sotherton (England), 2 Kylie Wheeler (Australia), 3 Jessica Ennis (England)

Men's high jump:
1 Mark Boswell (Canada), 2 Martyn Bernard (England), 3 Kyriacos Ioannou (Cyprus)

Men's long jump:
1 Ignisious Gaisah (Ghana), 2 Gable Garenamotse (Botswana), 3 Fabrice Lapierre (Australia)

Men's 400m:
1 John Steffensen (Australia), 2 Alleyne Francique (Greneda), 3 Jermaine Gonzales (Jamaica)

Women's 3,000m steeplechase:
1 Dorcus Inzikuru (Uganda), 2 Melissa Rollison (Australia), 3 Donna Macfarlane (Australia)

Women's shot put:
1 Valerie Vili (New Zealand), 2 Vivian Chukwuemeka (Nigeria), 3 Cleopatra Borel-Brown (Trinidad & Tobago)

Men's seated discuss EAD:
1 Tanto Campbell (Jamaica), 2 Jacques Martin (Canada), 3 Ranjith Jayaseelan (India)

Bowls:

Men's pairs:
1 Scotland (Alec Marshall, Paul Foster), 2 England (Mark Bantock, Ian Bond), 3 Australia

Women's pairs:
1 Australia (Lynsey Armitage, Karen Murphy), 2 Scotland (Joyce Lindores, Kay Moran), 3 New Zealand

Shooting:

Men's trap (singles) clay target:
1 Graeme Ede (New Zealand), 2. David John Beattie (Northern Ireland), 3 Manavjit Singh Sandhu (India)

Men's 50m rifle prone (singles):
1 Dave Phelps (Wales), 2 Michael Babb (England), 3 Sanjeev Rajput (India)

Men's 10m air pistol:
1 Samaresh Jung (India), 2 Vivek Singh (India), 3 Friedhelm Sack (Namibia)

Women's 50m rifle prone (singles):
1 Sheena Sharp (Scotland), 2 Juliet Etherington (New Zealand), 3 Johanne Brekke (Wales)

Diving:

Women's 3m springboard synchronised:
1 Australia 1 (Bree Cole, Sharleen Stratton), 2 Canada (Melanie Rinaldi, Rebecca Barras), 3 England 2 (Tandi Indergaard, Hayley Sage)

Men's 1m springboard:
1 Alexandre Despatie (Canada), 2 Ken Yeoh (Malaysia), 3 Steven Barnett (Australia)

Women's 10m platform synchronised:
1 Australia (Chentelle Newbery, Loudy Tourkey), 2 Australia (Alex Croak, Melissa Wu), 3 Canada (Roseline Filion, Meaghan Benfeito)

Weightlifting:

Women's 75+kg:
1 Geeta Rani (India), 2 Simple Kaur Bhumrah (India), 3 Keisha-Dean Soffe (New Zealand)

Men's 105kg:
1 Akos Sandor (Canada), 2 Valeriane Sarava (Australia), 3 Mohamad Azrol Che Mat (Malaysia)



Dean Macey finally got his hands on a gold medal when he fought through the pain barrier to land the Decathlon title at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
The 28-year-old Macey has been dogged by injuries throughout his career, and they have stopped him collecting more than a World Championship silver and bronzel.

Macey arrived in Melbourne without a proper training schedule due to a hamstring problem, and had to nurse himself through a number of the events.

The man from Canvey Island held a decent advantage going into the final day but lost his lead as he could only manage one javelin throw due to an elbow problem, meaning he had to test his hamstring in the closing 1500 metres.

However, he gritted his teeth and finished in a decent enough time to win gold with a score of 8,143 points, 69 ahead of Jamaica's Maurice Smith while Australia's Jason Dudley took bronze.

Ealier, Lisa Dobriskey had sprung something of a surprise when taking the women's 1500 metres title at the Commonwealth Games to secure England's first gold on the track.

With reigning champion and double Olympic medallist Kelly Holmes watching, the 22-year-old ensured the 1500 metre title stayed in England with a superb sprint finish to nick the title with a time of 4min 06.22 sec.

Wales' Hayley Tullett had to settle for bronze in the end after looking strong turning for home, with Australian Sarah Jamieson sneaking the silver in second.

England's Helen Clitheroe, bronze medallist in Manchester four years ago, was unlucky to be run out of the medals in fourth after leading from halfway.

A golden night on the track for England was capped off by Christine Ohuruogu's shock victory in the women's 400 metres.

World champion Tonique Williams of the Bahamas was left stunned as she could only get silver behind Ohuruogu, who lifted gold in a time of 50.28.


Jamaican Maurice Wignall eased to the gold medal in the men's 110 metres hurdles, where Scotland bagged their first medal on the track.

Wignall was a commanding winner in a time of 13.26 seconds, and Chris Baillie claimed silver after a photo finish with England's Andrew Turner, who had to make do with bronze.

Wales ended their wait for a gold medal in the pool as David Davies dominated the men's 1500 metre freestyle event to storm home in front in a time of 14 minutes 57.63 seconds.

The 21-year-old benefited from the absence of world and Olympic champion Grant Hackett to dominate the gruelling 30-lap swimming marathon to become the first non-Australian winner of the event in 52 years.

Although the Australian men have not been at their best in the pool, the women have dominated and they set a new world record time of three minutes 56.30 seconds when winning the 4x100 metres medley relay.

The combination of Sophie Edington, Leisel Jones, Jessicah Schipper and Libby Lenton bettered the previous world record of 3:57.32 set by Australia at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

England's veteran shooter Mick Gault won silver in the men's 50m pistol to become his country's most successful Commonwealth Games athlete ever.

The 51-year-old's third medal in Melbourne took his tally to 14 to go one better than swimmer Karen Pickering's previous record

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