Davies completes Commonwealth double in 5,000m, LaFond leaps to historic Dominica gold / Photo: © AFP
Davies completes Commonwealth double in 5,000m, LaFond leaps to historic Dominica gold
Australia's Rose Davies completed a 5,000 and 10,000 metre double in Glasgow as Olympic triple jump champion Thea LaFond finally landed gold in her fourth Commonwealth Games on Thursday.
Davies outgunned teammate Jessica Hull in a shootout over the final 400m after the Australian duo pulled away from Scotland's Megan Keith, who held on for bronze to the delight of the home crowd.
In adding the 5,000m title to her 10,000m crown earlier in the week, Davies becomes the first woman to complete the long distance double in Commonwealth Games history.
LaFond arrived at Glasgow's last Commonwealth Games in 2014 as a teenager.
After bronze in the Gold Coast in 2018 and silver in Birmingham four years ago she finally delivered a first Commonwealth gold medal for the tiny Caribbean island of Dominica.
"It feels so bittersweet. The sweet part is that I've really been waiting for this. I've now won every colour of Commonwealth Games medal there is, and it feels amazing to be a trailblazer for Dominica," said the 32-year-old.
"The bitter part is that this is probably my last Commonwealth Games. This is where it all started for me, and this is probably where it will end."
Jamaican duo Ackelia Smith and Shantae Foreman completed the triple jump podium.
Devynne Charlton won the women's 100m hurdles gold for Bahamas, beating Jamaican Megan Simmonds into silver with Nigeria's defending champion Tobi Amusan third.
But there was Jamaican joy in the women's discus as Samantha Hall took gold.
There will be no sprint double for 100m men's champion Emmanuel Eseme after the Cameroonian failed to qualify for the 200m final.
Chukwuebuka Enekwechi of Nigeria won the men's shot put with a throw of 21.07m to dethrone New Zealand's defending champion Tom Walsh, who was second with England's Scott Lincoln winning bronze.
Zachary Shaw of England won the para-sport T12 100m in 10.89. Canada's Sheriauna Haase won the women's event in the T47 category.
- England get revenge on track -
England savoured a long-awaited win over Australia in the men's 4,000m team pursuit final on the opening day of track cycling at the Sir Chris Hoy velodrome.
Charlie Tanfield was part of the Great Britain team pursuit team nudged into silver by the Australians in the Paris 2024 Olympic final.
The England team of Tanfield, Henry Hobbs, William Tidball and Ethan Vernon trailed at the halfway stage but hauled back to claim gold by over a second.
"I feel like my whole career has been about the team pursuit and it being us versus the Aussies," said Tanfield.
"It feels great. It's a good rivalry and it's really motivating. We've got some young guys coming through now so it's really exciting for the future."
Australia did reign supreme in the women's team pursuit with victory over New Zealand in the final.
The world record went three times in barely a few minutes in the women's para C4-C5 individual pursuit.
New Zealand's Nicole Murray set a new C5 world record to take bronze before England's Morgan Newberry promptly took almost half a second off that mark to win silver in a new C5 record of 5 mins 05.764 secs.
Tara Neyland of Australia, in the C4 class, then took gold in her own world record time of 4:46.614.
"It took a lot of patience and a lot of perseverance. To come away with a world record as well is really special," said Neyland.
Scotland's Neil Fachie is now the hosts' most successful Commonwealth Games athlete of all time after securing his sixth gold medal in the men's tandem B 1000m time trial.
England edged a shootout against South Africa 58-54 for a place in the netball semi-finals.
The Red Roses will take on New Zealand in the last four, while Australia face Jamaica.
A.al-Madani--BT
