Five Golds for Team England on Day Five
16th October 2008Team England struck gold in the pool, on the track and in the shooting range on the fifth day of the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India and ended the day with five golds, two silver and four bronze medals.
Helena Thornton from Nottingham set a Games record in winning the women’s 200m individual medley, taking the lead with an impressive breaststroke leg and powering home from the fast finishing Australian Kacay Pilgrim.
“I am so happy to have won,” said Helena. “The time is a lot faster than I had expected at this stage of my season. I knew the others would be strong at the end and I knew that I had to try and break them on the breaststroke leg and then hold on on the final freestyle leg. To compete at a Commonwealth Youth Games is just as good an experience as the European Youth Olympic Festival but to win an individual gold makes this extra special.”
Katy Venters from Huddersfield also set a Games record in winning the women’s 200m backstroke in a personal best time of 2:15.06.
“It was amazing,” said Katy, who led the race from the halfway stage. “That was the best race of my life. I felt very pressured before the final but when I knew I was in front I got a buzz and kept on pushing ahead. I wanted to win a medal but to get a PB and take the gold in a Games record is amazing.”
There was further success for the Team England swimming team, with Streatham student Louisa Farrer-Fisher adding a silver in the 100m freestyle to the silver she won in last night’s 200m freestyle and Natalie Durant from Richmond taking the bronze. To round off the night both the men’s and women’s 4x200m freestyle relay teams won bronze in their respective finals.
On the track Shaunna Thompson completed a sprint double with consummate ease as she dominated the final of the women’s 200m in a Games record of 23.42. The Manchester based athlete was understandably delighted with her second gold of the Games.
“It felt good,” she said after the race. “I could have run faster but it’s the end of the season and I’ve won two gold medals so I don’t care. I’ve just got to keep working now to improve. I felt before the Games that I could win the 200m but never thought I’d get gold in the 100m so after I won the 100m I was confident I could do the double. If I’ve learnt one thing from these Games it’s that you’ve really got to focus because there are a lot of distractions and people cheering for other events that are going on at the same time. If you focus it will go alright but if you don’t focus enough it can all go wrong.”
Norwich student Rachel Stringer ran very close to her personal best in the women’s 800m to take the silver medal behind Mokgadi Caster Semanya of South Africa, who set a Games record, while Shaunagh Brown from Gillingham took bronze in the women’s discus.
Harlow shooter James Huckle, who had already won gold in the 50m rifle prone and 50m rifle 3 positions events, crowned a memorable debut for Team England by winning his third gold medal today in the men’s 10m rifle competition.
“I was a bit shaky at the start and at the end,” said James, “but the middle was good. To win one gold was great but to win three is fantastic. This is the biggest event I’ve ever been involved with and I’ve learnt that you have to rise to the occasion. You always hope that you can do everything well, cope with the pressure and shoot well but it’s always a bit of a shock when you achieve your expectations. You know you can do it but when you do it’s a great feeling.”
On a great day for the Team England shooting squad Sheree Cox from Sunbury-on-Thames also won gold in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions event, taking a two point lead from the preliminary stages into the final and increasing her advantage to 5.4 at the end of the ten shots.
The 18-year-old, who won a bronze on Tuesday in the women’s 10m pistol event, was delighted with her performance.
“I shot what felt like 60 good shots in the preliminary stage,” she said, “and I would have liked a better score. But I felt that I was shooting well and although I was a bit nervous, when I shot a 10.6 on my first shot in the final that helped. I kept telling myself that I could do it and I’m just so happy.”
Four of Team England’s boxers reached their respective finals with victories in today’s semi-finals. James Dickens (flyweight), John Quigley (bantamweight), Iain Weaver (featherweight) and Daniel Phillips (lightweight) will all box for gold tomorrow.
“Mick (head coach) had a few words with me after my first fight and put me in second gear,” said Daniel Phillips after his impressive 24:6 points win over Jai Alexander from Australia. “I’m getting sharper with every fight so I feel very confident for tomorrow.”
Head coach Mick Gannon was in buoyant mood: “I’m over the moon,” he said. ”Hopefully we can win four golds and end up as the champion nation in the boxing events.”
There was disappointment for the tennis team as Lisa Whybourn and Jade Windley both lost in the quarter-finals of the girls singles while Chris Harrison went down fighting on Centre Court against the world ranked number four junior Yuki Bhambri from India. Lisa and Jade also lost their doubles semi-final to the Indian pair of Shroff and Venkatesha but will play off for the bronze medal tomorrow.
Team England will also be represented in the bronze medal matches in the women’s singles and men’s doubles of the badminton event after Panuga Riou lost her semi-final to Saina Nehwal from India, who reached the Olympic quarterfinals in Beijing, and Gary Fox and Richard Morris were outplayed by the number one seeds from Malaysia.
On the final day of the wrestling competition both Lawrence Carson and Christ Tshikeva lost their bronze medal contests by just one point, while Team England’s flag bearer Ben Watson just missed a lifetime best in finishing sixth in a very strong -77kg weightlifting competition.