Commonwealth Games: Bowls gold for South Africa in Glasgow

Glasgow: South Africa took the first gold medal on the fifth day of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on Monday when they defeated Northern Ireland 19-10 in the men’s lawn bowls triples final.

The win made it two golds out of three in the bowls so far for South Africa following success in the women’s fours on Sunday with New Zealander Jo Edwards taking the women’s singles.

Meanwhile, England’s Dan Greaves topped the para-sport discus competition at Hampden Park.

Star turn on the first full day of action in the famed football arena was Olympic champion Kirani James of Grenada as he progressed smoothly to the semi-finals of the men’s 400-metre, winning his heat in 45.52 seconds.

But the top performance of the morning session, however, belonged to Canadian decathlete Damian Warner, who produced a blistering 10.29 sec in the opening 100m of the two-day 10-discipline event.

The Games record and personal best gave Warner, the reigning world bronze medallist, a massive 1,025 pts to kick off his campaign.

England’s John Lane and South African Willem Coertzen were next fastest with 10.71 and 10.88 sec, the only other decathlete to dip under the 11 sec barrier being Welshman David Guest.

Lane followed up on his 100-metre personal best with another in the second event, the long jump, managing a best of 7.50 metres at his second attempt. Warner leapt out to the exact same distance to consolidate his lead on 1960 pts from Lane’s 1861

The evening session at Hampden Park was due to see the semi-finals and finals in both the men and women’s 100 metres.

Over in the pool Australia’s Cameron McEvoy took first blood in the men’s 50-metre freestyle heats ahead of Aussie rival James Magnussen.

McEvoy was beaten to gold in the 100-metre freestyle on Sunday night, but qualified for Monday evening’s semi-finals fastest in a time of 22:04 sec.

“It felt surprisingly good after last night,” said McEvoy.

“Mentally it is a bit difficult coming in after last night, but it is only one lap.”

McEvoy already has four medals from the meet in Glasgow as he also took silver in the 200-metre freestyle and was part of the Aussie team that struck gold in the 4x100-metre and 4x200-metre freestyle relays.

Attention turned to the women’s 100-metre freestyle on Monday night as world champion Cate Campbell of Australia, her sister Bronte, and England’s Fran Halsall look set to battle it out for the medals.

The Campbells went fastest in Sunday’s semi-finals, but Halsall has already claimed two golds in Glasgow in the 50-metre freestyle and butterfly.

No record for Gault

In shooting, England’s Michael Gault failed in his bid to become the all-time most-decorated Commonwealth Games competitor as he missed out on qualification for the final of the men’s 50m pistol won by India’s Rai.

Gault on Saturday tied the all-time record of 18 with a medal in the 10-metre air pistol.

Olympic champion Nicola Adams of England was due to begin her bid to become one of the first women to win a Commonwealth Games boxing gold medal.

Fighting in the flyweight division, the 31-year-old is favourite after she became the first women’s Olympic boxing champion at London in 2012.

New Zealand were confident of weightlifting gold when Richard Patterson takes part in the men’s 85kg division having won silver in Delhi in 2010.

In the women’s 69kg, Cameroon’s favourite Marie Fegue faced a challenge from 15-year-old English lifter, Rebekah Tiler.

In squash, Malaysia’s world number one Nicol David faced world champion Laura Massaro for the gold.