Robertson, Emms and Hallam go for Games gold
24th March 2006Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms are still on course for Commonwealth Games gold - but they had a semi-final scare today before booking a final clash with New Zealand's world bronze medallists Daniel Shirley and Sara Runesten-Petersen.
In contrast, Manchester 2002 runner-up Tracey Hallam guaranteed herself at least another silver as she eased into the final, beating Jersey's England international Elizabeth Cann in straight games in the process.
And there's the chance of more medals to come for England, who have already won the team silver, with Aamir Ghaffar through to the men's singles bronze medal match and Gail Emms & Donna Kellogg and Anthony Clark & Robert Blair also through to contest tomorrow's bronze medal matches in women's and men's doubles respectively.
Women's singles:
With the tournament staging quarters and semi-finals on the same day, Hallam (Staffs) beat New Zealand's Rachel Hindley 21-11 21-6 then outplayed Cann 21-17 21-8 to book a final showdown on Sunday with Malaysia's second seed Wong Mew Choo.
Wong beat Scotland's Susan Hughes 21-7 21-18 in the semi-finals and the Scot will face former English national champion Cann in the bronze medal match tomorrow.
Mixed doubles:
In the mixed doubles Robertson (Notts) and Emms (Herts) brushed aside Scotland's Andrew Bowman and Kirsteen McEwan-Miller in the quarter-finals 21-8 21-6 but in the semi-finals they dropped the opening game against Singapore's Saputra and Li before recovering to win a tight match 19-21 21-14 21-17. So now they face Shirley and Runesten-Petersen as they bid to maintain England's stranglehold on the mixed doubles gold medal after two consecutive wins by Simon Archer and Jo Goode (1998 and 2002) and Chris Hunt and Gill Clark (1994).
Men's singles:
Two-time National champion Aamir Ghaffar (Middx) fought his way into the semi-finals with a narrow 21-19 21-19 win over Niluka Karunaratne of Sri Lanka. but in the semi-finals powerful Malaysia Lee Chong Wei outplayed the England No 1 21-8 21-9. In the bronze medal match Ghaffar now faces India's Chetan Anand, who lost to Malaysian Wong Choong Hann in the other semi-final. Ghaffar is chasing England's first men's singles bronze since Darren Hall in 1998.
Men's doubles:
National champions Robert Blair (Leics) and Anthony Clark (Notts) beat Daniel Shirley and John Moody of New Zealand 21-11 21-9 in the quarter-finals but in the last match of the ninth day of competition Wong Choong Hann put himself in with a chance of a second gold when he and Choong Tan Fook beat the England pair 21-12 21-11. In the bronze medal match tomorrow Blair and Clark will face Australia's Ashley Brehaut and Travis Denney as Clark looks to add to the bronze he won with Nathan Robertson four years ago when England also took bronze through James Anderson and Simon Archer (no play-offs).
Women's doubles:
Gail Emms (Herts) and Donna Kellogg (Derbyshire) beat Indian pair Gupta and Kurian 21-17 21-10 in the quarter-finals but the second seeds were upset 21-8 21-14 by Singapore's Jiang Yanmei and Li Yujia in the semi-finals and now face India's Murgunde and Nehwal in the bronze medal match. The England pair are bidding for their second consecutive bronze with Kellogg also having won gold (with Jo Goode) in 1998.
Article from Badminton England