Commonwealth Games: Jake Wightman takes 1500m bronze as Australia's Oliver Hoare wins gold
- Published
Jake Wightman takes bronze as Australia's Oliver Hoare wins men's 1500m
2022 Commonwealth Games |
|---|
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. |
Scotland's world champion Jake Wightman says he is "relieved" to have earned Commonwealth bronze as Australia's Oliver Hoare charged through in the final few metres to claim a sensational 1500m gold.
Wightman, who stunned the world championships in Eugene last month, made his move with 200m to go but could not hold the lead.
Hoare edged past Kenya's Olympic silver medallist Timothy Cheruiyot at the line before sinking to his knees in disbelief at Alexander Stadium.
"Mentally it was hard to get back up for this," Wightman said after his third place finish.
"It wasn't even the pressure it was just the mental fatigue of having had such a high, to come back up and get on it soon again after.
"I could have easily bombed that and not done even anything. For me I've done something so good this season, everything else is a bonus.
"I gave it a go to win it, but I didn't have it. I'm just relieved to get something for Scotland because one of us deserved to be on the podium and I'm lucky to be the one to be on it."
Meanwhile, England's Nick Miller defended his hammer title, having nearly failed to make it into the final three throws.
The 29-year-old faulted on his first two attempts, then threw 69.04m to make it into the top eight, before his fifth throw of 76.43 secured gold ahead of Ethan Katzberg of Canada, and Alexandros Poursanidis of Cyprus.
Miller told BBC Sport: "It didn't really go all to plan but I'm Commonwealth champion again and we're just going to remember that bit - the rest was just gone!"
"After the third round, I was like: 'are you really going to be an idiot today? Are you really going to do it like this?' And then to look up and see the support from everybody, [I] took a corner and ended up winning."
Hoare stuns quality field
Wightman was aiming to clinch the second leg of a golden hat-trick this summer, having won world gold and with the European Championships in Munich to come this month.
There was much anticipation at another sold-out session at Birmingham's Alexander Stadium as Wightman led a stacked field of home nations athletes, plus formidable Kenyans Cheruiyot and Abel Kipsang.
But the story was Australia's Hoare, who smashed his personal best by over two seconds to set a games record of three minutes and 30.12 seconds, and correct his below par performance in the world championships, where he failed to even make the final.
The 25-year-old was fourth heading into the home straight, but powered through to deny Cheruiyot in the final few metres of a rapid race to become the first Australian man to win Commonwealth 1500m gold since Herb Elliot in 1958.
Scotland's Olympic bronze medallist Josh Kerr was well off the pace and finished last.
Wales' Jake Heyward was fifth, and England's Matthew Stonier seventh ahead of Scotland's Neil Gourlay, who finished eighth despite running a personal best.