WA Athletes Complete Medal Rush at Gold Coast Games
31 Western Australian athletes were successful in earning selection for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. With action across 11 days of competition, the state contributed to 18 medal winning performances with 20 athletes returning home with medals.
Podium performances for WA, were achieved across eight different sports, with three athletes earning multiple medals from their campaigns.
In total, WA athletes helped return eight gold, five silver and five bronze in an impressive return for the Australian Commonwealth Games Team.
A review of WA performances by sport is available below:
ATHLETICS
Nine West Aussies received call-ups for competition on the Gold Coast for Australia’s track and field team.
Madison de Rozario highlighted the campaign, winning two gold medals on her Commonwealth Games debut, after she missed Glasgow through illness. De Rozario was unstoppable in the T54 1500m final, surging at the bell lap to take line honours in 3:34.06mins.
On the final day of competition, de Rozario won a second gold medal with victory in the T54 marathon. At 24, de Rozario is widely tipped to become wheelchair racing’s next superstar, following the retirement of Australian legend Kurt Fearnley.
After a breakout season, Nina Kennedy added a final touch of gloss to an already fantastic campaign by winning a bronze medal in a high quality women’s pole vault final. Kennedy jumped 4.60m for third place, with gold going to Canada’s Alysha Newman, who cleared a new Games record of 4.75m for victory.
Liz Parnov finished fifth, with a top clearance of 4.40m. This was her best effort at a major meet and showed strong character to battle back to elite competition form, following a return to full fitness after a broken leg suffered in a training mishap in 2016.
Rhiannon Clarke at 15 was one of the youngest members of the Australian team and won a silver medal on debut in the final of the women’s T38 100m. Clarke set a time of 13.17sec for second place, with fellow West Aussie Ella Pardy in fourth in a time of 13.48. Both women will be eyeing competition at next year’s IPC Athletics World Championships, with the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics also on the longer term agenda.
After the bombshell withdrawal of home-town hero Sally Pearson from the women’s 100m hurdles field, WA debutant Brianna Beahan and Australian teammate Michelle Jenneke were left to carry local hopes.
Beahan equalled her personal best in the heats, to qualify for the final, where she placed fifth in 13.11sec behind Jenneke in fourth. Beahan also competed in the women’s 4x100m relay, but Australia suffered a double-blow, with the team disqualified after Beahan stepped on the line in the opening leg, before final runner Mel Breen broke-down with injury, preventing Australia from running a time.
In the men’s 400m hurdles, WA athlete Ian Dewhurst ran a season’s best of 49.84sec for third place in his heat, which fell narrowly short of a finals appearance.
Javelin thrower Luke Cann, competed at a second Commonwealth Games for Australia, taking sixth place in the men’s final, with a best throw of 76.99m.
There was disappointment for pole vaulter Declan Carruthers, who was forced to withdraw from competition after suffering a hamstring injury in the days leading up to the Games.
BASKETBALL
The Australian Boomers were untouchable in clinching their first gold medal since 2006, which was the only other time that basketball had featured on the Commonwealth Games roster.
Bunbury born Boomer Cam Gliddon was the sole representative from the state and he played an important part in assisting Australia to the gold medal, which was won in comprehensive style as the Aussies thrashed Canada 87-47 in the final.
Gliddon played more minutes for Australia than anyone else in the gold medal win, tipping in eight points to go with five assists and seven rebounds in an effective all-round performance.
BOXING
A silver medal is an incredible achievement at any level of international competition, but there can be no question that WA boxer Caitlin Parker was left shattered at losing a split-decision gold medal bout against Welsh opponent Lauren Price.
As the captain of the Australian boxing team, Parker had made no secret of her desire to win gold on the Gold Coast and she made the final in emphatic style, which included a resounding victory over top ranked Englishwoman Natasha Gale in the quarterfinal.
But where Parker had profited from outclassing athletes willing to go toe to toe in the early rounds, she met a more cunning opponent in the gold medal round. Price was able to keep her moving and picked off more clean shots in what was a scrappy bout. The five judges fell in favour of the Welshwoman, via a 4:1 split.
CYCLING
The track program began with a bang at the Anna Meares Velodrome in Brisbane as Sam Welsford and the Australian men’s team pursuit squad stormed home for gold in a new world record time of 3:49.804min.
Australia proved far too strong for England in the medal ride off and Welsford added further individual glory by winning an incredible scratch race, in which he closed a third-of-lap advantage for England’s Ethan Hayter over the final two-laps to win over the top at the death. Welsford’s West Aussie teammate Cam Meyer had played the perfect support role in setting up Welsford’s attack, in which he rode a 10.2 split for the final lap, in numbers not far short of an elite one-lap sprinter! Welsord also rode the individual pursuit, taking fifth place in qualifying, outside of the medal rounds.
Meyer rode on both track and road for Australia, with his highest accolade a superb gold medal win in the individual time trial on the road. He again provided invaluable support in the road race, helping Steele Von Hoff to a memorable gold medal win for Australia.
On the track, Meyer was unable to win a points race title to go with his world championship crown from earlier in the year. Mark Stewart of Scotland was the chief beneficiary after a large portion of the race field marked Meyer’s every move. In the end the pressure was too great even for Meyer to bare, with the multiple world champion settling for fourth.
DIVING
Maddison Keeney was troubled in the lead up to the Commonwealth Games with the early symptoms of a stress fracture in her leg. The issue restricted her training and required her to wear a moon boot around the Village to avoid load-baring.
In order to compete at the Games, Keeney dropped the 1m springboard from her competition schedule. An event that she is the current world champion in.
Her first venture at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre saw her come unstuck on the final dive of the women’s 3m Synchro, where a mishap – and subsequent failed dive – saw her and partner Anabelle Smith score a zero to go from the gold medal position to last.
Keeney returned and enjoyed better fortunes in the 3m springboard final, where she executed the highest difficulty of any athlete in the field to take second place and a silver medal, behind the highly regarded Canadian diver Jennifer Abel.
The late withdrawal of Taneka Kovchenko saw WA diver Teju Williamson called up at short notice to compete alongside Australian diving great Melissa Wu. The duo took fourth place in the final of the 10m Synchro, scoring 307.80 points to finish narrowly shy of Malaysia’s Mun Yee Leong and Nur Dhabitah Sabri in third.
HOCKEY
The Kookaburras continued their golden legacy at Commonwealth level, earning a sixth consecutive crown with a solid 2-0 win over New Zealand in the final.
The Kookaburras team featured five Western Australian athletes, with; Tyler Lovell, Trent Mitton, Aran Zalewski and Jake Harvie joined by the late injury replacement call-up Tom Wickham.
Australia were undefeated throughout the campaign and will now look to take that momentum through to this year’s World Cup.
NETBALL
One of the firmest favourites for Commonwealth Games gold across the breadth of sports was the all-conquering Australian Diamonds. It was thought that with New Zealand struggling to maintain the level of the Australians in recent head to head matches, that on home soil it would be too great an ask for any of the other nations to upset the green and gold.
That view appeared justified in the lead up to the gold medal match, with Australia easily accounting for all of its pool round matches and its semi-final win over New Zealand (65-44).
England however, produced an outstanding defensive effort on the Diamonds, to upset Australian combinations and force coach Lisa Alexander into a series of personnel shuffles across the four quarters. Although the Diamonds fought to the bitter end, a last ditch goal for the Roses sent the gold medal home to England, sparking unbridled joy for the English players at the culmination, many of whom, are now representatives of the Super Netball competition in Australia.
Whilst the result was a stinging one for the Australians, it has breathed new life into International netball and established a new super power to rival the traditional stranglehold of Australia and New Zealand.
The Diamonds team featured two West Aussies, with captain Caitlin Bassett, joined by Games debutant Courtney Bruce.
PARA POWERLIFTING
Para-powerlifting was the only one-day competition on the Gold Coast competition roster, which provided a stage to WA’s affectionately known athletes, the Dung Beetles.
Heavyweight Ben Wright and his lightweight accomplice Nang Nguyen concocted the self-styled nickname as a tongue in cheek reference to their capacity to lift heavy quantities. And so it proved, with Wright taking sixth place in his final, with a best lift of 172.0kg for 152.4 points and Nguyen clearing 132kg for 142.3 points and an eighth place ranking.
Keep an eye on this entertaining duo, who will now set their sights on the 2020 Paralympic Games.
SHOOTING
Having missed selection for the Rio Olympics, WA skeet shooter Laura Coles made her first major competition appearance for Australia since claiming gold at the 2014 Glasgow Games.
On the Gold Coast however, there would be no dramatic repeat of her fairytale performance in Scotland four years ago, with Coles missing the final after finishing ninth in her qualification effort, with 67 targets hit.
Coles was only Western Australian member of the Australian shooting team.
SWIMMING
Five of Western Australia’s six swimming representatives returned home with Commonwealth Games medals in a strong performance for the state’s swimming stocks.
Brianna Throssell earned a gold medal, after swimming in Australia’s successful women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team. This effort came after she had won an individual bronze medal in the final of the 100m fly. She also contested the final of the 200m fly, taking fifth place.
Swimming as the oldest member of the team, Holly Barratt earned a silver medal in the final of the 50m fly, touching home in 25.67. Barratt also competed in the 50m back, narrowly missing out on a bronze medal in fourth place.
The ever-green veteran Blair Evans flashed her trademark smile after collecting a bronze medal in the final of the 400m Individual Medley. Evans dedicated the result to her coach Bud McAlister who has been battling a significant health scare in recent times.
Evans also enjoyed a finals swim in the 200m IM, taking fifth place in 2:12.76.
Katherine Downie collected a second career Commonwealth Games medal when she won bronze in the final of the women’s 200m IM (SM10) on the third night of swimming finals. Gold went to Kiwi athlete Sophie Pascoe.
Brianna Throssell’s UWA-West Coast swimclub teammate Zac Incerti earned a podium finish in the final of the men’s 50m backstroke, with Australia earning a clean sweep of the medals. Incerti picked up bronze, with gold going to Mitch Larkin, ahead of silver medallist Benjamin Treffers.
Teenage talent George Harley managed a finals swim on his Commonwealth Games debut, swimming home for fifth position in the men’s 200m breaststroke won by England’s James Wilby.