Commonwealth Games: Live blog day 10

That’s it for the tonight. We hope you’ve enjoyed the action and will join us again tomorrow for the final day of competition along with the closing ceremony.
Charlie Flynn and Josh Taylor win gold for Scotland. Picture: Lisa FergusonCharlie Flynn and Josh Taylor win gold for Scotland. Picture: Lisa Ferguson
Charlie Flynn and Josh Taylor win gold for Scotland. Picture: Lisa Ferguson

21.22: It’s gold for Bolt and Jamaica. They didn’t lead when he got the baton but they sure were leading when he crossed the line. England ran a fine race and were neck and neck going into the last change-over, but in a one-on-one battle between Bolt and Danny Talbot there was no doubting the eventual result. Jamaica also set a new Games record with the run.

21.18: Usain conducts as ‘500 Miles’ is chanted by the Hampden crowd. It’s incredible how he can just muck about and then run 100 metres in 10 seconds.

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21.14: Elsewhere in the field, Khotso Mokoena has won the gold medal in the Men’s Triple Jump. The South African set the mark early and challenged his opponents to be it. In the end, nodody came close to the 17.20 jump and Mokoena finally got his hands on gold having previously finished second in the Olympics, World Championships and Commonwealth Games at various points in his career.

21.09: Sally Peake takes silver for Wales in the Women’s Pole Vault. After her problems with the rain, Australia’s Alana Boyd, one of the pre-competition favourites, settled down and proved her quality to take the gold.

21.00: Jamaica set a Games record in winning the Women’s 4x100m Relay Final. Nigeria, with double gold medal sprinter Blessing Okagbare in their ranks, finished second. A young English team finished third.

20.55: Julius Kiplagat Yego - a Kenyan who learned to throw the javelin on YouTube - has won the Men’s Javelin gold medal. And no, we didn’t just make that up.

20.47: Why don’t we have more events like this? Oh yeah, the torrential rain. It’s caused some consternation in the Women’s pole vault since the competitors can barely get themselves in the air because everything is slippy. Perhaps unsurprisingly it’s a home nations’ athlete leading so far - Sally Peake of Wales.

20.43: Scotland’s two gold medals today have arrived via the boxing ring. Relive a historic day for Scottish fighters with Martin Hannan’s report.

20.24: A pulsating finish to the Men’s 4x400m Relay as breakthrough teenage phenom Matthew Hudson-Smith runs the last leg of England’s team and manages to hold off veteran Chris Brown of the Bahamas to collect the gold medal. The runner was a virtual unknown prior to the Diamond League meeting at Glasgow a few weeks ago. He wowed the crowd then and he’s done so again, finding an extra gear down the home straight to leave Brown in his dust. Scotland’s team - consisting of Kris Robertson, Grant Plenderleith, Jamie Bowie and Greg Louden - beat out defending champions Australia into fifth place.

19.56: Jamaica have taken what could be the first of four gold medals in the relay races tonight by winning the Women’s 4x400m Final. They held off a strong challenge from the Nigerian team who had Regina George to thank for putting them into contention with a superb second lap. England were never in contention during the latter half of the race but were comfortable in third.

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19.47: Tough race for Scotland’s Chris O’Hare. The middle-distance runner likes to pace himself and attack the home straight but he got caught in the congested back end during the final lap of the Men’s 1500m Final. He ended up having to exert too much energy just to get himself into contention and had to watch as the four runners ahead of him pulled away to the finish line. Gold and silver belonged to Kenyan runners James Kiplagat Magut and Ronald Kwemoi, respectively. Nick Willis of New Zealand finished strong to take bronze.

19.35: 40-year old Jo Pavey has won bronze in the Women’s 5000m with a quite incredible run. The English runner decided to force the issue and accelerated to the front of the pack. However, it looked like she’d shown her hand too early when her three Kenyan rivals raced ahead with less than 800m to go. Digging deep she pushed in front of the trio once more with 400m left. The extra effort seemed to have sapped her energy when she receded to fourth with 200m remaining. Instead, like a bad guy in a horror film, she just kept coming back; eventually finishing in third 0.06 seconds away from a silver medal. Scotland’s Laura Whittle and Beth Potter finished sixth and ninth, respectively.

19.25: Scotland’s Grace Reid has finished in ninth place at the conclusion of the Women’s 3m Springboard Final. The 18-year old was diving in her home town pool and will view this as valuable experience for the future. The gold was won by Esther Qin of Australia.

19.01: There’s a bronze medal in the badminton for Scotland. Robert Blair and Imogen Bankier got over their disappointment of failing to make the final by beating Malaysia in the third place playoff.

17.05: Why not have another? It’s gold medal No 19 as Josh Taylor defeats Junias Jonas for the Commonwealth Games Men’s Light Welterweight title. All three judges had Taylor winning each and every round in what was a performance brimming with poise and composure while the home crowd around him were collectively losing theirs. There’s plenty more fights to come tonight but that was the last featuring a Scottish fighter. What a way to end it.

Charlie Flynn has just entered the ring and is about to receive his gold medal. Some of his quotes in the aftermath of the fight included “the mail man delivers again”, “from the ring the crowd look like ants but they roar like lions” and, our personal favourite, “another crocodile bites the dust”.

16.43: It’s gold for Charlie Flynn and gold for Scotland! The Lightweight boxer from Lanarkshire dominated Joe Fitzpatrick over three rounds to win the final by a unanimous decision. The second round, in particular, is where he won the bout. After edging a close opener he came out for the next three minutes and displayed some scintillating boxing skills, bringing the partisan home crowd to their feet and almost putting Fitzpatrick on the canvas. His opponent stayed up right and remained patient, looking for the one big punch that would steal the fight in the third round, but Flynn was always ready with the counter and drew a deafening roar from all around him when the decision was announced.

16.11: Michael Conlan has emerged victorious from an all-British bout against Qais Ashfaq for the Men’s Bantamweight Gold Medal. The Northern Irishman didn’t get the rub of the green from the judges at the end of a close first round with two of them scoring it in favour of his English opponent. Unaware of the harsh ruling, Conlan stepped his game up even further in the next two rounds, winning both of them and forcing a solemn acknowledgement of defeat from Ashfaq when the final bell sounded.

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There’s just two bouts left from the afternoon session and they both feature Scottish fighters. Charlie Flynn is up next, shortly after the Hydro crowd has finished applauding Reece McFadden, who is collecting his bronze medal.

15.41: Both fighters celebrated after the bell sounded on the Men’s Flyweight Gold Medal Match. Unfortunately for Pakistan’s Muhammad Waseen he was incorrect in his assertion, finishing with the silver medal on a unanimous decision. Andrew Moloney of Australia - the man who defeated Scotland’s Reece McFadden in the semi-finals - won the gold from a match which hinged on the judges’ perception of a close second round. It certainly appeared that Waseen had delivered the more clean punches, but the judges concluded that Moloney’s had packed more power. A observation that was backed up by the existence of a cut close to Waseen’s right eye. The Asian boxer won the final round but, two rounds down in the minds of all three judges, it wasn’t enough to earn the win.

15.13: The final matches of the Table Tennis Mixed Doubles have been played with England taking gold, silver and bronze. The winners of the event were husband and wife team Joanna and Paul Drinkhall. They defeated Liam Pitchford and Tin-Tin Ho in a five game thriller, which was concluded around 30 minutes after the team of Danny Reed and Kelly Sibley had bettered Singapore’s Zhan Jian and Feng Tianwei for the bronze.

15.08: Northern Ireland’s Paddy Barnes has won gold in the Men’s Light Flyweight Final. Barnes had the backing of the Hydro crowd and he edged India’s Devebdro Laishram in an all-out slugfest between the two fighters. The split-decision reflected the bout well, as did Barnes getting the win.

14.45: Two gold medals have been won so far in the boxing. The first bout was for the Women’s Flyweight title, and what a close contest it was. Two judges called it dead even over four rounds - the women’s finals have an additional round - so it was left to the Kazakhstani judge to decide the winner. He went for England’s Nicola Adams who bounced around the ring in delight after the decision was announced. Northern Ireland’s Michaela Adams was forced to settle for the silver.

The second fight was much more straightforward as Shelley Watts over Australia struggled in the first round against India’s Laishram Devi but controlled things thereafter, winning the gold via unanimous decision.

13.14: Two pieces of news from racket and paddle events. Kirsty Gilmour will face Hong-Kong born Canadian badminton player Michelle Li in the Women’s Singles Final tomorrow. She’ll get her shot at gold but the same cannot be said for Table Tennis Men’s Doubles pair Harry Leitch and Alan Clyne who lost 2-0 to England in their semi-final.

13.08: Usain Bolt said he would entertain and last night he lived up to his promise. Moira Gordon recounts the world’s fastest man’s meeting with a sold out Hampden Park.

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12.17: There’s a Scottish medal guaranteed in the badminton! Kirsty Gilmour has beaten Malaysia’s Jy Tee in two games to progress to tomorrow’s final. Gilmour will be thankful for the day’s rest having endured a 25 minute second game which she managed to edge 21-19. That good news makes up for the exit of Scotland’s mixed double pair of Robert Blair and Imogen Bankier, who were beaten by English opponents.

12.15: New Zealand’s netballers have defeated England in a gripping semi-final at the SECC. Only 11 points were scored in a tense final quarter, but the Kiwis got the one that mattered, literally scoring in the last second. They’ll face either Jamaica or Australia in the gold medal match.

11.30: As if to consciously prepared the people of Glasgow for life’s harsh realities once these Games are finished, the heavens above the city have opened up and begun bucketing rain down on its inhabitants. That should not dampen the enthusiasm for today’s events, however, with Team Scotland looking to add more medals to an already record haul in the penultimate day of competition.

Yesterday was another belter with so many highlights to pick from. The best of which was arguably Lynsey Sharp’s silver medal run in the Women’s 800m Final. Having battled a year filled with injuries, Sharp’s chances were hanging by a thread when she came down with a sickness bug the night before the race. Participating on very little sleep, just over 12 hours after she had been on a drip in the athletes visit hospital, Sharp came storming down the home straight to take a silver medal. It’s the kind of never-say-die story that these Games have been all about.

So what does today hold in store for us? With things winding down things aren’t quite as frantic, but there’s still the boxing finals to go through, with Scotland’s Charlie Flynn and Josh Taylor going for a gold medal, and the relay finals on the last day of track and field events. Stick with us and we’ll give you updates on the action as and when it happens.