Delhi 2010: A medal-filled day for home nations
Oct 13 2010 The Journal
ENGLAND’S sprint relay squads and divers Tom Daley and Max Brick struck gold on Day Nine of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
And Scotland’s shooting success story continued with two more gold medals secured by Jen McIntosh and Neil Stirton and Jon Hammond.
There were two more medals for the North East, too, as Gateshead-born sprinter Vicki Barr and Saltburn table tennis player Paul Drinkhall claimed bronze in the women’s 4x400m relay and mixed doubles respectively.
The Middlesbrough-born 20-year-old had already won silver with England in the team event at the Games. His singles bid ended at the quarter-final stage yesterday, however, as he was beaten by Singapore’s Zi Yang, who also ended Drinkhall and mixed doubles partner Joanna Parker’s bid for gold at the semi- final stage with his partner Yuegu Wang.
There were three more shooting medals for the Home Nations with England’s Mike Babb and Richard Wilson taking silver behind Stirton and Hammond, Wales’ Johanne Brekke landing bronze behind McIntosh and Mick Gault and Iqbal Ubhi a bronze in the men’s standard fire pistol pairs.
England’s 4x400m men and women weighed in with bronzes and Kate Dennison had to settle for one in the women’s pole vault.
Rhythmic gymnastics trio Rachel Ennis, Francesca Fox and Lynne Hutchison won a bronze medal for England in the women’s team competition.
Kelly Massey, Barr, Meghan Beesley and Nadine Okyere claimed a bronze in the women’s 4x400m relay as India stunned Nigeria on the final lap to take gold in three minutes 27.77 seconds.
Earlier in the day, child prodigy Daley and Brick claimed the Home Nations’ first diving medal of the competition, edging the Australian pair of Matthew Mitcham, the Olympic 10m platform champion, and Ethan Warren into second.
The young English pair, with London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe looking on, scored 439.65 points, 15.84 ahead of Australia with Canada third and Malaysia last in a four-team final in which only gold and silver medals were awarded.
Stirton and Jon Hammond scored 1181- 74x in testing conditions to clinch Scotland’s second shooting gold medal of the day in the men’s 50m rifle prone pairs. And earlier McIntosh had fired a Games record score of 597-42x in the women’s singles 50m rifle prone competition, missing just three shots in the six series.
