#GC2018 Day Ten: Kookaburras Claim Sixth Consecutive Gold
Day ten of the 2018 Commonwealth Games has delivered three more medals for our Western Australian athletes, including a sixth consecutive gold for the Kookaburras, along with another three individuals heading through to their respective gold medal matches, to be held tomorrow.
HOCKEY
After an undefeated run to get to the grand final, the Kookaburras finished their clean sweep with a 2-0 win over New Zealand tonight.
In a hard fought game everything came down to the second quarter, where the Australians scored both of their goals.
Unfortunately for the New Zealand side they were unable to recover from the deficit remaining scoreless as the clock ran down, left to claim the silver.
The Kookaburras’ win makes it six Commonwealth gold medals in a row, the first won back at the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Games.
DIVING
Maddison Keeney took to the diving pool today to compete in the Women’s 3m Springboard competition going one better than she did at the 2014 Glasgow Games by claiming the silver medal.
Easing her way in to the day, Keeney came away from this morning’s preliminary round with a sixth place finish and 302.50 points.
Saving the real magic for the big event Maddison returned this afternoon with a fire in her belly.
The 21-year-old executed well dive after dive to rack up an outstanding 366.55 points which ultimately resulted in her winning silver.
BOXING
Western Australian boxer Caitlin Parker had her final appearance in the boxing ring today fighting in the final bout of the Women’s 75kg competition.
Taking on Welsh athlete Lauren Price, the pair put on quite the display making nothing easy for each other.
As the final bell rang out Price was announced as the victor winning four of the five rounds.
Parker comes away from the Games having both debuted and won a silver medal.
CYCLING – ROAD
After a long Commonwealth Games schedule Cameron Meyer jumped on his bike for the last time today to contest the Men’s Road Race.
An exceptional effort saw him cross the line in the first group of riders to earn a ninth place finish in a time of 3:57:01.
The race was won by fellow Australian Steele Von Hoff.
ATHLETICS
Day ten saw our last two athletes compete in Carrara Stadium, Brianna Beahan and Luke Cann.
Brianna competed as part of the Women’s 4x100m Sprint team.
Unfortunately their race came to a devastating end as they were disqualified for falling outside of their lane during the final change over.
After qualifying yesterday, Luke Cann returned to the field today to compete in the Men’s Javelin final.
Although he was unable to reach the same distance he achieved in qualification the javelin thrower put out a remarkable display to finish in sixth place.
Cann’s furthest distance was 76.99m which he achieved on his third of six attempts.
BASKETBALL
The Boomers made their way in to tomorrow’s gold medal match with a certain deal of ease today defeating Scotland 103-46 in the first of the men’s semifinals.
Running away with an early lead Australia entered the first quarter break 16 points ahead of their opposition.
They continued to assert their authority throughout the rest of the match until they eventually came out as 57 point victors when the final whistle blew.
Western Australia’s Cam Gliddon contributed to the team’s win well scoring three points and pulling in four defensive rebounds.
NETBALL
The Australian Diamonds have once again finished their game with a convincing win, this time defeating New Zealand 65 to 44.
By scoring a total of 65 goals the Australians set a new record for themselves of the biggest winning margin as well as the most goals scored at a Commonwealth Games against New Zealand.
Captain and Western Australian athlete Caitlin Bassett started the game in goal shooter playing the entire first half before being moved to the bench.
As usual Bassett achieved impressive stats scoring 17 from 18 goals at 94%.
Fellow Western Australian Courtney Bruce entered the game after the main break in goal defence.
She stayed here for the whole second half before being moved in to goal keeper part way through the fourth term.
Bruce earned herself two defensive rebounds and five deflections during her time on the court.
With one more day left for Gold Coast 2018 there are still four Western Australian athletes left to compete for a medal.
Tomorrow we will see Madison de Rozario compete in the Women’s T54 Marathon, Cam Gliddon and the Boomers play in the gold medal match of the Men’s Basketball against Canada and Caitlin Bassett and Courtney Bruce compete with the Australian Diamonds for the gold medal in the netball.
- Annika Lee-Jones