Birmingham Update – Day 7
Australia’s medal tally sits at 132 after four golds, four silvers and a bronze were added on Day 7 of competition at the Commonwealth Games.
Australia’s medal tally sits at 132 after four golds, four silvers and a bronze were added on Day 7 of competition at the Commonwealth Games.
Clancy said it feels great to be taking the steps towards where they want to be, the gold medal match. “I’m feeling good about the quarters, we’re going to enjoy this moment that’s for sure,” Clancy said. “We’re going to take some time to recover tonight and be ready to go again tomorrow,” she said. Artacho del Solar admitted while it is exciting to have progressed, it’s still about taking it one game at a time.
“Amazing, it feels very good,” Short said. “It’s what I’ve been training for, for a long time and then I finally put the race together properly and ticked the box. “I would have preferred a good time over the gold but to get both is amazing. “When I was younger, I had a tendency to gas myself early and now I try to build the race and be smarter. “I mean, it’s tricky. I think the trick is count once and get it right. My race plan was like building the hundreds. Mentally I was focused. I had someone with me the whole time so I didn’t have room to switch off and I just focused.”
Dominant Titmus caps triumphant week in pool She’s no stranger to success , but Ariarne Titmus has now achieved something no other female swimhas in more than half a century. But the final gold was the one that clearly meant the most. “The 400m is my baby,” Titmus , also the Olympic champion and world-record holder at the distance , said. She beat Canada’s flying 15-year-old Summer McIntosh, who is looming as a major threat at the 2024 Paris Olympics , with fellow Australian Kiah Melverton securing bronze. “I’m excited to get the job done personally but also for the country,” said Titmus, who skipped June’s World Championships in Budapest to target the Commonwealth Games after overcoming COVID. “I think that, back home, Australia really prides itself on success in the pool at the Comm Games.
It’s a couple of hours after the Commonwealth Games swimming meet. The Australian team converges on a back pavilion to hoot and holler and hand out a few gongs in an in-house presentation ceremony. The late-night silence is broken by the old refrain of Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi oi. It sounds less grating when athletes do it. Of the 52 finals at Birmingham’s Sandwell Aquatics Centre, Australia won 25, grabbing 20 silver and 20 bronze for good measure. On closing night Mollie O’Callaghan finished her evolution from rising star to shooting star by grabbing her fifth gold in the medley relay. “Pretty epic,” the 18-year-old said. “We all crushed it this week.”
AUSTRALIA’S champion swimmers have turned the Birmingham Aquatic Centre into their own golden pond. Just when you thought the Dolphins couldn’t do any better than their five-gold medal haul from Tuesday morning – they went one better and picked up six more on Wednesday morning – capped by a stunning win in the mixed medley relay. Ian Thorpe, commentating for Channel 7, was gushing with praise for McKeon’s latest achievement, saying she was a bona fide legend. “So many events, so many great performances, so many great memories for Emma McKeon and for all of us,” he said.
The debate over who is Australia’s greatest ever swimmer can stop because it’s not even a contest. As great as Dawn Fraser, Ian Thorpe, Shane Gould, Murray Rose and Kieren Perkins all were, Emma McKeon’s achievements have left them all in her wash. Her own harshest critic, she hates losing but in the rare times she doesn’t dwell on it because she turns her focus to her next race then the next race after that. “She’s in a really good space and she’s willing to challenge herself. As great as she already is, she’s still got a lot more in the tank and we don’t think we’ve seen the best of her yet.”
AUSTRALIAN national butterfly champion Matthew Temple had a perfect touch at the finish of the men’s 100m butterfly final to dead-heat with English star James Guy for the silver medal. Temple, who has fine-tuned his electric turns, said he was “over the moon”. “I think underwater and the turns are one of my specialties. So I tried to use that to my advantage and get in front of everyone else.
With Australian farms and businesses desperate for workers, Independent MP Rebekha Sharkie is urging the federal government to make it possible for people on the age pension to work without losing much of their benefit.
Older Australians would be able earn up to $300 a week and retain a full pension under a private member’s bill tabled by Liberal senator Dean Smith. Senator Smith, the opposition assistant Treasury spokesman, said it was vital for economic growth to get more older Australians into the workforce to plug skills shortages. His bill would enable pensioners to retain their government payments while earning $600 a fortnight, up from $300 currently. “Australian businesses and communities are battling severe labour shortages, especially in remote and regional areas, and incentivising pensioners to work can help relieve this,” he said.
The finishing line at the 2022 Commonwealth Games is rapidly approaching, and so is a 1000th gold medal for Australia. No Commonwealth nation has won 1000 gold medals since the whole shebang started at the British Empire Games way back in 1930.
