Historic gold - Commonwealth Games Day 5
Woody Point resident Lachlin Dalton has helped Australia win the first ever Commonwealth Games 3x3 wheelchair basketball gold medal this morning.
The 21-year-old, pictured in the pool match against Canada, who plays in Mt Gravatt scored four points as the Wombats beat Canada 11-9 in the final at Birmingham.
Dalton had Australia’s first two points as the teams traded scores and then a two-pointer to give the Wombats an 8-5 advantage.
Canada drew level at 8-8 but the Wombats’ strong finish, with a one-point shot in the final 30 seconds proved decisive.
On the Commonwealth Games Australia website, Dalton's team-mate Luke Pople said: “He’s (Dalton) been awesome all tournament. He’s the guy that gets the team up and about and he gets big shots.”
Dream comes true
It was a golden finish to a dramatic competition for Dalton whose stunning two-pointer in overtime beat England in the semi-final yesterday.
“You dream about it as a kid,” said Dalton on the Australia Commonwealth Games website of a semi-final already described as an "all time classic".
“Because two points wins the game, I knew if we didn’t take the early lead, they’d have a pretty good chance to win. So I just decided, with a bit of daylight left, I’d just go for it. I just hoped for the best really.”
Kaylee McKeown has her third gold medal of the Commonwealth Games as part of Australia's mixed 4x100m medley relay team.
The former Burpengary-based swimmer swam the first backstroke leg, against two male competitors, bringing leaving Australia third at the handover.
Zac Stubblety-Cook (breaststroke) took the Aussies into second, Matt Temple (butterfly) grabbed the lead and Emma McKeon (freestyle) anchored the winning quartet home stopping the clock at 3 minutes 41:30 seconds ahead of Canada 3:43.98 and England 3:44.03.
Another final
Earlier McKeown made her way through through to the women’s 50m backstroke final with a controlled swim in this morning’s semi-final.
The Redcliffe-born former Caboolture resident matched team-mate Bronte Job before moving just ahead in the closing stages to win in 27,75 seconds. Job was second.
McKeown is the third fastest qualifier for tomorrow’s final which will see another showdown with Canada’s Kylie Masse who set a games record in her semi.
Caboolture's Lakeisha Patterson, who trains with the Belgravia team in Burpengary, finished fifth in the SM10 200m individual medley final this morning.
'Lucky' was stepping up a category and away from her usual freestyle events, which were not part of the Games program.
She battled hard to clock 2 minutes 42.35 seconds, just under nine seconds behind gold medallist and Australian team-mate Jasmine Greenwood 2:33.29.
Sam Short, the former Prince of Peace student at Everton Hills, cruised into the 1500m final last night, winning his heat by more than 20 seconds.
The 18-year-old clocked 15 minutes 2.66 seconds to beat Australian team-mate Kieran Pollard 15:23.46 in Birmingham.
They are the fastest qualifiers for the final on Thursday at 5.12am AEST when Short will be looking to add to his silver in the 400m freestyle on Sunday.
Former Redcliffe junior Renee Taylor helped Australia to a 1-0 victory over New Zealand in Pool B of the Commonwealth Games hockey tournament last night.
The 25-year-old midfielder, who played two years with the peninsula club’s under 11s, had four shots, but it was Kaitlin Nobbs who struck the only goal in the first quarter.
Australia is dominating Pool B with a maximum nine points from wins again Kenya (8-0), South Africa (5-0) and now New Zealand (1-0) - 14 goals scored and none conceded.
Their final pool match is against Scotland tonight, starting 6pm AEST.
Ella Connolly, who lived in Burpengary and was a member of Deception Bay Little Athletics, was a late withdrawal from the 100m heats last night.
One of Australia’s biggest hopes for sprint success, Connolly has chosen to concentrate on the 200m which start on Thursday evening AEST.