The new ball game in Australian sports journalism

Matthew Denny took home a gold medal in discus overnight, setting a personal best in the process. (Image: birmingham2022.com ; Design: Will Cuckson)

Day Seven of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games was another eventful one, with the Aussies continuing to make us proud in Birmingham. Nine medals were awarded to those in the green and gold in athletics, diving and cycling events.

It was another big day of athletics in Birmingham with plenty of Aussies in action.

Matthew Denny struck gold in discus, taking home the gold medal and setting a personal best of 67.26m. Sarah Edmiston also took a medal home in discus after winning the silver medal. She was only beaten by a world record throw from Goodness Chiemerie Nwachukwu from Nigeria.

How good from @Matty_Denny! He wins discus GOLD with a PB of 67.26 🥇#B2022 pic.twitter.com/99dV5Za0gC

Madison De Rozario won her fourth gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, winning gold in the women’s T53/54 Marathon. Christie Dawes just fell short, finishing at fourth place in the event.

🇦🇺 Madison de Rozario now has back-to-back gold medals in the Women's Marathon and 1500m T53/54! 🥇🥇 Broadcast Partner @Toyota_Aus | #OhWhatAFeeling#B2022 pic.twitter.com/Gz9vQB2EpJ

Five events into the Men’s decathlon, Cedric Dubler currently sits at second place in the standings, while Alec Diamond and Daniel Golubovic are placed at fourth and fifth respectively. They will all aim to finish strong in the final five events of the series.

Ella Connolly qualified for the women’s 200m final, finishing second in her heat, while Jacinta Beecher also qualified in her heat, finishing third.

Sarah Carli managed to narrowly qualify for the women’s 400m hurdles final, finishing fourth in her heat, she will look to improve improve in a bid to claim a medal.

In the 1500m, Oliver Hoare qualified in first place with a time 3:37.57, but unfortunately Matthew Ramsden and Stuart McSweyn could not do the same in the second heat, with the latter failing to start the sprint.

Nicholas Hough unfortunately finished seventh in the 110m hurdles final, while Henry Frayne and Christopher Mitrevski finished sixth and ninth respectively in the long jump final.

Eleanor Patterson and Nicola Olyslagers both qualified for the women’s high jump final, with a height of 1.81 metres being enough to send them through.

Alexandra Hulley qualified fourth in the hammer throw with a distance of 66.15 metres.

It was a solid day overall in track and field with plenty more to come in the last few days of the games.

There was plenty of Aussie representation on the badminton court on Day Seven of the games. Although not all could come out on top, the majority managed win their games and progress to the next round of their tournaments.

In the men’s singles, Ying Xiang Lin defeated Guyana’s Narayan Ramdhani to move into the Round of 16, where he will go up against India’s number two seeded Lakshya Sen. On the other side of the bracket however, Nathan Tang was knocked out after he couldn’t progress against England’s sixth-seeded Toby Penty.

Meanwhile, in the women’s singles Wendy Chen got the better of Lorna Bodha from Mauritius, Chen will go on to face Jamaica’s Tahlia Richardson in the next round. Unfortunately, Tiffany Ho couldn’t follow suit, defeated by the third-seeded Kirsty Gilmour from Scotland.

Thankfully, it was a clean sweep of victories for Australia in doubles action. In the sole Australian men’s doubles match, Jack Yu and Pham Tran Hoang comfortably defeated Douglas Clark and Duane March of The Falkland Islands to progress, while Yu also won his mixed doubles match alongside Kaitlyn Ea, defeating Samuel Ricketts and Tahlia Richardson of Jamaica.

It was a family affair in Birmingham as well, with the aforementioned Yu’s sister Angela progressing to the next round with her brother’s doubles partner Hoang, defeating the Ugandan pairing of Kenneth Comfort Mwambu and Justine Tracy Naluwooza.

Finally, Ying Xiang Lin paired his strong singles performance with an equally impressive mixed doubles win alongside Gronya Somerville, defeating Brian Kasirye and Fadila Shamika Mohamed Rafi of Uganda.

In yet another strong performance, the pairing of Mariafe Artacho Del Solar and Taliqua Clancy cemented their position at the top of Pool B by defeating Zoi Konstantopoulou and Erika Nyström of Cyprus.

The duo won their sixth straight set of the tournament so far, winning this match 2-0 (21-14, 21-13) and will be full of confidence moving into the knockout stages of the bracket.

Artacho Del Solar and Clancy are through to tomorrow’s Quarter Final where they will face Scotland in an attempt to take another step towards the gold medal match.

It's ANOTHER win for Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy 🔥 They go through to the quarter-finals after finishing on top of Pool B ⭐#B2022 pic.twitter.com/EN1rv0u7Wv

It was a strong performance from Australian heavyweight Edgardo Coumi, who dispatched of Anguilla’s Japheth Olton to send himself into Saturday’s Semi Final. The judges unanimously voted the first round of the contest in favour of Coumi, the referee did not let the contest continue much longer after this decision.

Not everything went our way in the squared circle on Thursday. It was an impressive start from Alex Winwood in the first round of his Flyweight quarter final matchup against Zambia’s Patrick Chinyemba. However some controversy in the second round of the bout marred his start, after Winwood was knocked down by his opponent early on in the round.

The fight was waived off, despite Winwood rising to his feet in quick fashion. It was a disappointing finish, but nonetheless we can expect big things from Winwood in the near future based on what we’ve seen.

Thankfully, Tina Rahimi finished night seven on a high, comfortably defeating England’s Sameenah Toussaint by points to progress to the semi-final of the Featherweight bracket, where she will face Nigeria’s Elizabeth Oshoba in an attempt to make the final.

Rahimi in control…🇦🇺#B2022 pic.twitter.com/sdcanYsaTY

The Men’s and Women’s Cycling Time Trials saw us take home two gold medals last night with Rohan Dennis and Grace Brown each storming home to take away the top prize last night.

For two-time world champion Dennis, he took home his first ever gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, finishing 26.28 seconds clear of England’s Fred Wright in second place.

Meanwhile, Brown claimed another victory over our English counterparts, finishing 33.35 seconds ahead of Anna Henderson to claim gold in the women’s event.

Aussies Lucas Plapp and Georgia Baker also finished fifth and fourth respectively in the men’s and women’s events. While they couldn’t claim a medal, they still performed well in what was a great day of cycling for Australia.

When Brown turns into GOLD for Australia 🥇🇦🇺 Take a bow, @GLBrown321 👏#B2022 pic.twitter.com/esSOpRqmla

It was brilliant start for Shixin Li, who qualified in first place in the preliminary of the men’s 1m springboard. Unfortunately for Li, he could not replicate it in the final, falling just short of England’s Jack Laugher and picking up a silver medal for his efforts.

Meanwhile, Emily Ann Boyd qualified third in the women’s 10m platform, but only managed to finish seventh in the final, while Nikita Hains and Emily Kate Meaney qualified in eleventh and twelfth. Meaney finished in fifth place, and Hains finished eighth. Mikali Dawson also competed, but did not qualify for the final.

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Ashari Gill, Lidiia Iakovleva, and Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva took home a silver medal in the women’s rhythmic team all-around gymnastics, falling short of Canada with a total score of 268.650. It was a strong performance from the team, and a deserved medal finish.

Iakovleva and Kiroi-Bogatyreva also both qualified for the individual competition, and they will be looking to add another medal to their tally overnight after the success they enjoyed on day seven.

SILVER 🥈 A huge congratulations to our women's rhythmic gymnastics team winning the silver medal. Both Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva and Liidia Iakovleva qualifying for the individual all around competition tomorrow!#B2022 pic.twitter.com/R8lLanVH3S

Another impressive performance saw the Kookaburras stick seven goals past Pakistan to win their fourth group stage match of the tournament.

Starting at an average pace, the Kookaburras scored one goal in each of the first two quarters, before storming away in the second half, with two goals in the third quarter and three in the fourth to cement a 7-0 victory.

Having only conceded two goals thus far in Birmingham, they will now take some massive momentum into the semi-final. They will face England, who have not yet lost at these games and it is sure to be a great contest.

Our Kookaburras are dominating this game!!#B2022 pic.twitter.com/FU6IgJsdAO

Aaron Wilson had a strong day in Birmingham overnight, winning both of his games to move into the knockout stage with a 4-0 record. First, he defeated Guernsey’s Todd Priaulx with a scoreline of 21-7, before replicating his efforts with a 21-9 victory over South Africa’s Jason Evans. His attention will now turn to England’s Jamie Walker in the quarter finals of the tournament.

In the women’s triples, Lynsey Clarke, Natasha van Eldik and Rebecca van Asch started the day strongly, defeating Northern Ireland 19-9. Unfortunately it did not end as such, suffering a 10-14 loss to New Zealand in the quarter final, which saw their Commonwealth Games campaign come to an end.

The para mixed pairs duo of Jake Fehlberg and Helen Boardman also suffered a 10-13 loss at the hands of Wales in the semi-final, but will have a chance to rectify their defeat in the bronze medal contest against England.

In a disappointing finish to the group stages, our Aussie Diamonds suffered a two goal defeat at the hands of Jamaica last night. It was the first time the Sunshine Girls have ever defeated Australia at a Commonwealth Games, and the scalp will be huge for their momentum moving forward.

As for Australia, with a six goal lead heading into the final break, it was not an easy loss to take. Thankfully, the team had already qualified for the medal round quite comfortably, and will now have a chance to regroup as they face England in the semi finals on Saturday.

It’s now do or die for the Aussie Diamonds, however they still have a great chance of going all the way.

Jamaica defeat the @AussieDiamonds for the first time in Commonwealth Games history and finish top of pool A 👏#B2022 pic.twitter.com/5tKbmLiilt

It was a huge effort from Hani Watson in the women’s heavyweight para powerlifting final. Although she didn’t quite have enough to jump the two Nigerian lifters ahead of her, it was still a very impressive performance to win the bronze medal.

Meanwhile, for men’s heavyweight Ben Wright, it wasn’t meant to be. Wright just fell short of claiming a medal, finishing fourth in the final. However, he did set a personal best of 190 kilograms on his third lift, and that is something he can definitely be proud of.

Hani Watson making it look easy! 🇦🇺 121kg 😮#B2022 pic.twitter.com/lMBRI9dAAn

Five games of squash doubles were played by Australia overnight with all teams coming out of it looking in good shape.

In the men’s doubles, Zac Alexander and Ryan Cuskelly defeated Jake Kelly and Jace Jervis of the Cayman Islands with ease to progress a Round of 16 meeting with Jamaica.

While in the women’s doubles, Donna Lobban and Rachael Grinham made their way into a quarter final by defeating Sunayna Kuruvilla and Anahat Singh of India. Sadly, Alex Haydon and Jess Turnbull could not do the same as they were easily beaten by England’s Georgina Kennedy and Lucy Turmel.

However, it wasn’t the only time we saw some of these players compete for the day, as Lobban teamed up with Cameron Pilley in mixed doubles action to defeat Joshana Chinappa and Harinder Pal Sandhu of India and move into a quarter final against Scotland.

Meanwhile, Alexander and Grinham also teamed up to defeat Patrick Rooney and Georgina Kennedy of England. They will now face India in the quarter finals.

Aussie Table Tennis stars Jian Fang Lay, Yangzi Liu and Minhyung Jee all won their Round of 32 matches overnight, and are one step closer to competing for a medal in Birmingham.

Meanwhile in men’s doubles action, Dillon Chambers and Xin Yan as well as Nicholas Lum and Finn Luu both teamed up to defeat separate Ghanaian teams and advance into the Round of 16.

Jian Fang Lay and Xin Yan failed to progress in the mixed doubles. Meanwhile, the pairings of Yangzi Liu and Finn Luu and Minhyung Jee and Nicholas Lum, both progressed to the next round of the tournament.

Lin Ma won his game in the Men’s singles tournament while Junjian Chen lost his game to Nigeria’s Nasiru Sule.

In women’s singles action, Li Na Lei and Qian Yang won their games comfortably, although Daniela di Toro and Amanda Jane Tscharke could not do the same.

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