Team England strikes gold at Commonwealth Youth Games
14th October 2008Team England may have had to wait until the third day of competition to win its first medals at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India but they made up for lost time today with six gold, one silver and two bronze medals and now lie in second place in the overall medals table behind host nation India.
The first day of the athletics programme produced six medals for Team England. Pete Smith, an apprentice electrician from Hull, won gold in the men’s hammer despite an uneasy start with two no-throws.
The 18-year-old is coached by his father Dave, who won gold in the hammer at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in 1986, and proved he has inherited plenty of his talent by producing a penultimate throw of 68.38m to clinch the gold.
“Missing the first two throws put a lot of pressure on me,” admitted Pete, whose brother Alex also won the hammer title at the last Commonwealth Youth Games four years ago.
“I knew that I could win but I didn’t expect to have to work so hard and it was a big relief when I got the throw in that put me in the lead as I knew no-one would beat it.”
Shaunna Thompson, from Newton Heath, put up the evening’s most impressive performance with a commanding win in the 100m in a personal best time of 11.46, which was also a Commonwealth Youth Games record.
“I’m so pleased,” said Shaunna. I’ve been wanting to run a PB in the 100m - I knew I could do better than 11.64 and I was just waiting for the right competition at the right time. This is the Commonwealth Youth Games and the end of my season so I couldn’t have picked a better time and I’m really happy.”
The 16-year-old student will be back on the track again tomorrow in the heats of the 200m and has high hopes of a sprint double.
Lewisham student Curtis Griffith Parker saved his best throw until last in the men’s shot put, setting a Commonwealth Youth Games record of 18.56m with his final throw to snatch the gold medal from Stephen Brink of South Africa.
To crown a golden night for the Team England athletics squad, Jade Ive set a Commonwealth Youth Games record of 4.05m to win the pole vault, with team-mate Abigail Haywood taking the bronze, while Ben Williams missed out on gold in the triple jump by just one centimetre and had to be content with silver.
Weightlifter Zoe Smith, at 14-years-old the youngest member of Team England competing in Pune, put up her best ever performance and set a Commonwealth Youth Games and senior British record on her way to winning gold in the women’s under-53kg event.
The schoolgirl from Abbey Wood in London, who has only been weightlifting for two years, led after the first element of the competition - the snatch - but her first attempt in the clean and jerk, with the bar at 82kgs, was a failure as she lost her balance and fell backwards. However, she regained her composure and clinched the gold medal with a lift of 87kgs that her nearest rival from India failed twice to match and the former gymnast celebrated with a back somersault to the delight of the crowd.
“It feels amazing,” Zoe said after receiving her medal. “I could have done better but it’s my best international performance and I owe it all to my coaches. This medal means more to me than anything in the world,” she added, “and I’m just so happy.”
Harlow teenager James Huckle started the gold rush in the shooting range by winning a nail-biting men’s 50m rifle prone event. The 18-year-old qualified for the final in first position with a score of 585 and held a two-point lead over his nearest rival, Matthew Hall from Northern Ireland. Although Matthew closed the gap James held his nerve on the final three shots to finish 1.1 points ahead of his rival.
“I’m really happy to have won,” said James afterwards. “I definitely focused more in the final because each shot is so important and you only have 45 seconds. There was a lot of pressure but I think you can only put pressure on yourself and so I just tried to stay calm.”
There was further success in the shooting range with a bronze for Sheree Cox from Sunbury-on-Thames in the women’s 50m rifle prone.
Elsewhere in the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports City it was a good day for Team England in the table tennis competition as both men’s and women’s pairs progressed to the quarter-finals of the doubles and in the badminton hall with Emsworth’s Panuga Riou in the women’s singles and both men’s and women’s pairs in the doubles event progressing to the quarter finals. On the tennis courts, Chris Harrison from Doncaster began his singles campaign with an easy win over Brian Phillip from Antigua and then teamed up with Lewis Barnes for another straight sets win in the doubles. The girl’s doubles pairing of Jade Windley and Lisa Whybourn also progressed to the next round.
Both boxers in action today, flyweight James Dickens from Liverpool and featherweight Iain Weaver from Ferndown, won their preliminary bouts and Team England’s first competitor in the wrestling, Jack Longthorne from Bolton, finished fourth in the men’s 42kg event.