Commonwealth Games: NI's Kate O'Connor second in heptathlon after superb day one
- Published
Kate O'Connor stormed into real medal contention with her superb performance in the shot put
2022 Commonwealth Games |
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Hosts: Birmingham Dates: 28 July to 8 August |
Coverage: Watch live on BBC TV with extra streams on BBC iPlayer, Red Button, BBC Sport website and BBC Sport mobile app; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live and Sports Extra; live text and clips online. |
Northern Ireland's Kate O'Connor is in second spot after day one of the Commonwealth Games heptathlon following a brilliant series of performances.
O'Connor, 21, set personal bests in the opening 100m hurdles and 200m.
Those runs came either side of solid high jump and shot put marks which means O'Connor goes into day two second behind Katarina Johnson-Thompson.
The English star is 109 points clear but O'Connor is 52 points ahead of third-placed Australian Taneille Crase.
O'Connor set a personal best of 13.74 in the opening 100m hurdles before clearing 1.78m in the high jump which left her fourth at that stage on 1968 points.
As defending champion and favourite Johnson-Thompson produced a below-par shot put, O'Connor's season's best of 13.73m moved her to within 11 points of the 2019 world champion.
Thompson-Johnson regrouped with an impressive 200m win in 23.70 to significantly extend her lead but O'Connor's latest personal best of 24.73 - which cut 0.09 seconds off her previous mark - saw her consolidate second spot.
Holly Mills, tipped to be team-mate Johnson-Thompson's closest challenger, could only manage a 200m time of 25.12 which left her 54 points behind O'Connor in fourth spot.
Another English athlete Jade O'Dowda also remains in medal contention, 74 points behind O'Connor, with the second Northern Ireland competitor Anna McCauley is sixth spot nearly 500 points off the pace.
Wednesday's remaining three events are the long jump, the javelin, where O'Connor is normally strong, and the concluding 800m.
Olympic medallist Aidan Walsh (right) completely dominated his contest with Lesotho's Arena Pakela
Mixed fortunes for NI boxers
It was a mixed day for Northern Ireland's boxers - expected to provide the bulk of the country's medals - as Aidan Walsh stormed into the quarter-finals but team-mate Eugene McKeever exited after sustaining a cut eye early in his fight.
Olympic bronze medallist boxer Walsh dominated his opening light middleweight contest to reach the quarter-finals in Birmingham as he earned a unanimous win over Lesotho's Arena Pakela.
The Belfast man's left jab was in Pakela's face throughout the contest as the African simply couldn't get near the Tokyo medallist.
Bafflingly, the Sri Lankan judge only gave Walsh a narrow 29-28 verdict with the other four correctly deciding that the Monkstown club fighter had won conclusively.
Walsh's team-mate McKeever will consider himself extremely unfortunate to have been eliminated in his last-16 contest against Gambia's Stephen Zimba.
Welterweight McKeever sustained a cut above his left eye following an accidental clash of heads in the opening round.
Initially the cut was seen to and the bout was allowed to carry on, until it reopened followed a right hand from the Gambian which prompted the referee to bring a halt to proceedings.
Northern Ireland's Sam Barkley is making his Commonwealth Games debut alongside 1998 gold medallist Martin McHugh
Disappointment for men's pairs at bowls
Northern Ireland's men's bowling pair Martin McHugh and Sam Barkley lost their bronze medal match as they were beaten 25-5 by Scotland's Paul Foster and Alex Marshall.
Northern Ireland made a promising start to lead 2-0 after two ends before the Scots quickly took control.
The Scottish pair picked up a key five at the third end, followed by a four, a single and another four to lead 14-2, with Northern Ireland unable to mount a comeback.
Whitehead's McHugh, competing at his seventh Commonwealth Games, was part of Northern Ireland's gold medal-winning fours team in Kuala Lumpur in 1998.
In the women's triples, Northern Ireland's Ashleigh Rainey, Chloe Wilson and Courtney Meneely beat Falkland Islands 22-10 but NI's women's pair Megan Devlin and Shauna O'Neill lost 14-13 to England.
Gary Kelly won his opening men's singles game as he defeated Norfolk Island's Ryan Dixon 21-12.
Wiffen and Hill reach swimming finals
In the pool, Daniel Wiffen and Danielle Hill both progressed to finals.
Armagh man Wiffen comfortably qualified for Wednesday evening's men's 1500m freestyle final, finishing second in his heat in 15 minutes 37.53 seconds.
Wiffen conserved his energy to qualify fifth fastest as his time was almost 40 seconds slower than his Irish record set last month when he just missed out on a place in the final at the World Championships.
A repeat of that sub-15 minute swim could put him in medal contention in Wednesday's final.
Hill reached the women's 50m backstroke final after placing fourth in her semi-final in 28.28 seconds, which left her as seventh qualifier.
The Tokyo Olympian's time cut 0.04 off her morning semi-final performance as she reached her second final at the Games after finishing seventh in the 50m freestyle final.
Goal was to reach the final - McAteer
Barry McClements, after winning Northern Ireland's first ever Commonwealth Games swimming medal on Friday, had to settle for sixth place in the S10 100m butterfly final.
McClements is a S9 swimmer and was taking on S10 competitors who are significantly faster on the clock.
The Newtownard man's time of 1:02.95 left him over six seconds behind Australian winner Col Pearse, who led the three S10 swimmers who filled the podium positions.
Mollie McAlorum clocked 31.77 to win her 50m backstroke heat but that time was not enough to qualify, while Grace Davison (30.49) also missed out.
In gymnastics, Ewan McAteer produced a creditable performance to finish sixth in the final of the men's vault.