Team Scotland made history in three sports on day four of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, as the medal count rose to 23.
Swimmer Duncan Scott became Scotland’s most decorated Commonwealth Games athlete after winning two bronze medals in the Sandwell pool during a packed evening session. Scott took 100m Freestyle bronze behind rival Dean to equal shooter Alister Allan’s record medal tally of 10, before Stephen Milne, Evan Jones and Mark Szaranek laid the ground work for Scott to bring the Men’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay team home to bronze with an outstanding final leg to claim the medal record outright.
Katie Shananan claimed her second bronze of the Games as she was roared home in the 200m backstroke by delighted team-mates, her medal coming right on the back of Scott’s bronze in the 100m Freestyle final.
Shannon Archer made sporting history as she became the first-ever Scottish women to win an Artistic Gymnastics medal at a Commonwealth Games. She picked up bronze in the Vault final at Arena Birmingham, earning an impressive 13.083 points.
Excitement levels were high as greeted her friends and family after the medal ceremony, getting a massive embrace from her sister Gemma who is the Assistant Sport Competition Manager at Arena Birmingham. Scotland’s Cara Kennedy was also in action in the Vault final, but couldn’t quite replicate her Team Event score and finished in sixth place with 12.633 points.
Frank Baines improved on his Floor scores from both Friday’s Team Event and yesterday’s All-Around final, achieving an impressive 13.566. However, some strong floor routines from the other Home Nations and Canada saw Frank finishing in sixth place.
Pavel Karnejenko went into the Rings final with the fifth best qualifying score but couldn’t quite replicate that score, finishing in sixth place with 13.766 points.
Shannon was back in action on the Uneven Bars just half an hour after her medal ceremony for the Vault, scoring 12.366 to take eighth place.
On the final day in the velodrome, Team Scotland rounded out the track cycling events third on the medal table with nine medals – the best performance by Scottish cycling at a Games.
After bronze and silver on the previous two nights, Neah Evans went into the Women’s Scratch race as one of the favourites, but heavily outnumbered, she’d need to produce a very special ride to make it onto the podium. She did indeed produce a special ride, but came up agonisingly short in fourth place.
It was a similar story in the Men’s Points Race where Scratch Race silver medallist John Archibald finished fourth and defending champion Mark Stewart fifth in an unbelievably aggressive race, where again New Zealand’s strength in numbers told as they took a one-two.
Over in Coventry, Scotland won two medals in the first day of the Judo competition with Finlay Allan taking a silver medal in the Men’s 66kg and Malin Wilson earning a bronze medal in a competitive field in the Women’s 57kg weight category, both competing at their first Commonwealth Games.
There was heartbreak in the morning session as Glasgow 2014 gold medallist Kim Renwick went out in the first round of competition, having moved up a weight category from eight years ago. Elsewhere Kirsty Marsh progressed through the round of 16 but was sadly defeated in the quarter finals.
Both David Ferguson and Dylan Munro were competing in the men’s 60kg competition, unfortunately David fell in the round of 16 while Dylan made it past the first round but went out at the quarter final stage.
Scotland have two guaranteed medals in Lawn Bowls after both the Women’s and Men’s Para B6-B8 Pairs scored sensational semi-final victories. Pauline Wilson and Rosemary Lenton were on fine form as they raced into a 12-4 lead. England pulled it back to 12-10 but the Scots finished strongly to comfortably win 16-10. Pauline and Rosemary will play Australia for gold on Wednesday.
Kevin Wallace and Garry Brown pulled away in the latter stages of what had been a close contest to claim an excellent 18-10 win over New Zealand for a place in the final, where they face Australia. In the Para Mixed Pairs B2-B3 Robert Barr and Melanie Innes beat New Zealand 18-11 and Australia 10-8 to continue their unbeaten record.
Alex Marshall and Paul Foster lost their Men’s Pairs semi-final match to England 19-13 and will compete in the bronze medal match. England got off to a great start scoring a five in the first end. The Scots clawed back the lead but a strong England finish saw the host nation through to the final. Marshall and Foster will play Martin McHugh and Sam Barkley of Northern Ireland in the bronze medal match tomorrow.
In a classic match in the Men’s Squash Singles, Rory Stewart came agonisingly close to a semi-final spot but lost to defending Commonwealth Games champion James Willstrop. The Scot lost the first game but won the second and third before Willstrop took the fourth and edged the final game to win 3-2. Greg Lobban dug deep but was knocked out of the competition 3-1 by Saurav Ghosal of India in the quarter finals. Lobban lost the first game 11-5 but took the second 11-8. Ghosal won the next two games to proceed to the semi-finals.
Over in Smithfield, all three Scottish teams were in action on the Basketball 3×3 court, with the Women’s running team taking on Gold Coast 2018 silver medallists Canada in their quarter-final. Unfortunately the opposition got the better of them and, despite a thrilling game, the Canadians took an 11-17 win.
They were followed on to the court by both nation’s Women’s Wheelchair teams as Scotland played Canada in their semi-final. The North Americans proved to be a challenge, and Scotland left the court with a 12-5 loss, meaning they’ll play England in tomorrow’s bronze medal match at 17:30.
The Men’s running team played a heroic semi-final against Australia later in the evening, having made their way straight to the semi-final by winning all three pool matches. Kyle Jimenez netted 11 points for the men, but the competition against the Gold Coast 2018 Gold medallists was strong and Scotland lost 15-20. They’ll play Canada in the bronze medal match tomorrow at 16:00.
Weightlifter Jason Epton made his Commonwealth Games debut in the Men’s 81kg final and finished a respectable 10th after successfully lifting 120kg and 157kg in the snatch and clean and jerk sessions respectively. Unfortunately, Alice Aitchinson couldn’t lift her opening weight in the snatch session of the Women’s 76kg Final, and so she did not finish the competition.
Flyweight Lennon Mulligan’s own debut at the Games against Eriu Temakau of Kiribati was a controlled performance from start to finish that ended in a unanimous decision victory for the Glasgow boxer. Sean Lazzerini sent a clear message to the Men’s Lightweight field with a confident display versus Jean Luc Rosalba of Mauritius that resulted in a third round stoppage.
Megan Reid became just the third female boxer to represent Scotland at the Games, and she can be proud of her display, but sadly it wasn’t quite enough to convince the judges who ultimately sided with England’s Gemma Richardson.
It was a mixed day for Team Scotland’s hockey teams as the women beat Games debutants Kenya 11-0 in a convincing display which saw them bounce back from the heartbreak of the New Zealand game. The girls go into their Australia match third in the table with a chance to qualify should they beat the Australians later this week.
The men suffered a close defeat to South Africa. Despite a confident and gritty performance the final score ended 5-4 leaving them at the bottom of Group A table.