Australia will have plenty of chases to add to its gold medal tally early on Saturday night [AEST] as the action gets underway on Day 9 of the Commonwealth Games.
Australia remains on top of the Commonwealth Games medal tally with 50 golds but England is closing in with 47 to set up a thrilling race in the final days.
Here is a full wrap of the key events to come on Saturday night and into the early hours of Sunday morning!
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LAWN BOWLS
Australia could pocket up to 11 more gold medals on Saturday, with Kristina Krstic and Ellen Ryan taking home the first in stunning fashion in the women’s pairs lawn bowls final.
England’s Sophie Tolchard and Amy Pharaoh led at 11-2 at one point but the Aussies refused to go away and won on the final bowl in dramatic fashion.
England skipped out to an early 2-0 lead and threatened to make it 4-0 but a brilliant final bowl from Ellen Ryan knocked two of her rival’s balls out of the way to level it at 2-2.
England responded though with two solid ends to reassert its dominance and kept going from there to take a 11-2 lead but Australia roared back in epic fashion to get it back to 11-10.
The Aussie duo kept up the fight, picking up four points on the 13th end to lead 16-12 before England pegged it back and was up 18-17.
Krstic and Ryan though were on the brink of gold medal glory with two leading balls on the 18th end, only for Pharaoh to knock one out with a brilliant bowl on the final ball.
It meant the game finished a draw and would instead go into overtime to decide who would take home the gold.
England was in the commanding position with a few balls left but a pinpoint bowl from Ryan knocked the jack away and kept Australia in with a chance.
Once again it went down to the last ball, with Australia’s gold medal hopes resting on Ryan’s shoulders.
And she came up clutch with a stunning shot to knock England’s leading ball out of the way, sealing gold in a thrilling comeback.
ATHLETICS
The gold rush has continued on the track, with Jemima Montag taking out the women’s 10,000m walk in a dominant display.
Montag paced herself brilliantly throughout the walk and then picked up the pace in the latter stages of the race to get in a comfortable position.
So comfortable that Montag could start celebrating well before she crossed the finish line for gold with a time of 42:34:00 — a new personal best and Commonwealth Games record.
There is plenty of other action on the track, with Eleanor Patterson, the reigning world champion, looking to defend her crown in the women’s high jump final.
She is coming off a brilliant win at the World Championships and became the first to clear 1.89m in a strong opening to the final.
Nicola Olyslagers was initially going to join her but withdrew from the final with a torn calf.
“It could be a few weeks and if I jumped today it was possible to be a nine-month injury,” the
2018 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist told Channel 7.
Elsewhere, Julie Charlton will also be competing in the women’s F55-57 shot put final while there will be four Australians going for gold in the women’s 10km race walk final at 7.30pm.
Later at 8.50pm, Ben Buckingham and Edward Trippas will be going for gold in the men’s 3000m steeplechase final.
The final shot at gold comes in the men’s 1500m final, with Ollie Hoare in action and looking to secure ultimate redemption after a disappointing exit from the world championships.
Hoare was the fastest Australian qualifier after finishing first in heat one with a time of 3:37.57.
Other highlights include the women’s and men’s 4x100m relay heats.
There are lots of high-stakes events too with Alex Hulley (hammer throw), Sarah Carli (400m hurdles), Catriona Bisset (800m) and Ella Connolly (200m) in their own finals.
NETBALL
The ultimate grudge match sees Australia’s Diamonds face England in the netball semi-final. You can read Nat Medhurt’s full preview ahead of the fiery semi-final here, with the game set to begin at 11.30pm.
If Australia is successful, it is Jamaica they will face in the final.
Jamaica’s stunning run continued as they dominated the Silver Ferns to take a 67-51 win and book their spot in the gold medal match for the first time at the Commonwealth Games.
Jamaica were the surprise top qualifiers in their pool after shocking Australia and it looks like
the Diamonds will again need to try find a way to shut down Jhaniele Fowler.
The world’s best shooter dominated in Jamaica’s 57-55 win over Australia in the pool stage, finishing that match with 47 goals from 50 attempts and was even better against New Zealand.
The West Coast Fever star shot a perfect 54 goals from 54 attempts in the win.
TABLE TENNIS
Two Australian pairs (Chunyi Feng & Yangzi Liu and Jian Fang Lay & Minhyung Jee) were both successful in their Round of 16 matches for the women’s doubles table tennis.
They will face Singapore and Nigeria respectively in the quarter-finals at 1am.
Later in the night, Liu will continue her bid to become the first Australian woman to win a Commonwealth Games singles medal when she competes in the semi-final.
There will be guaranteed gold in the morning too, with an All-Australian para table tennis final between Li Na Lei and Qian Yang.
GYMNASTICS
Shortly after at 7pm, 18-year-old Lidiia Iakovleva will be in the rhythmical gymnastics hoop final after finish seventh (107.150) in the all-around final on Friday.
Later there will be more gold medals up for grabs in rhythmical gymnastics too, with Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva scheduled to compete in both the ball and clubs final.
Those events are scheduled for 7.42pm and 8.22pm respectively but won’t be the end of Kiroi-Bogatyreva’s day as she has also qualified for the ribbon final at 9.02pm.
BOXING
There are lots medals up for grabs in the ring, withfive Australians into the semi-finals. First up, Kaye Scott is in action at 8.30pm in the women’s light middleweight boxing semi-final against Alcinda Helena Panguane.
Callum Peters will also put on the gloves for the men’s middleweight semi-final later in the night at 9.15pm, taking on Simnikiwe Bongco.
Edgardo Coumi is in action at 2am against Lewis Williams of England in the men’s heavyweight division while Australian middleweight Caitlin Anne Parker faces Tammara Thibeault.
History will be made on Sunday morning regardless of the result as Tina Rahimi becomes Australia’s first Muslim woman boxer to take home a medal at the Games.
She will fight Elizabeth Oshoba in her featherweight semi-final.
DIVING
Two Australian duos (Maddison Keeney/Anabelle Smith and Brittany O’Brien/Esther Qin) will be competing in the women’s 3m synchronised springboard diving final.
Later on, the women’s synchronised 10m platform final sees Emily Boyd, Nikita Hains, Charli Petrov and Melissa Wu all in action.
CRICKET
There is plenty to look forward to in the early hours of Saturday morning too, with Australia’s women’s T20 cricket side battling New Zealand in a semi-final at 3am.
VOLLEYBALL
A dominant quarter-final performance has Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy one step closer to gold.
Their next challenge will be Vanuatu in the women’s beach volleyball semi-final at 6am.
HOCKEY
There will be more semi-final action, with Australia up against longtime rival England in the men’s hockey, with the time for that game to be confirmed.
SQUASH
There is plenty of action on the squash court too, kicking off with Cameron Pilly & Rhys Dowling and Zac Alexander & Ryan Cuskelly in the men’s doubles quarter-finals.
The mixed doubles semi-finals later in the day will feature Donna Lobban and Pilley while Jess Turnbull and Alex Haydon team up in the mixed doubles plate quarter-final.
WRESTLING
There is lots to look forward to in wrestling too, with Naomi De Bruine (women’s 50kg, women’s 53kg and women’s 76kg) in action along with Justin Holland (men’s 57kg) and Tom Barns (men’s 74kg, men’s 97kg).
FULL SCHEDULE — DAY 9
Lawn Bowls and Para Lawn Bowls, 5.30pm
Hockey, 6.00pm
Netball, 6.00pm
Table Tennis and Para Table Tennis, 6.30pm
Athletics and Para Athletics, 7.00pm
Diving, 7.00pm
Rhythmic Gymnastics, 7.00pm
Boxing, 7.30pm
Wrestling, 7.30pm
Badminton, 8.00pm
Cricket T20, 8.00pm
Squash, 9.00pm
Boxing, 11.30pm
Netball, 11.30pm
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