16 March 2006

Pool of Gold for Scots

Caitlin McClatchey shocked Ozzie swim fans by lifting the first gold in the Aquatic Centre, Melbourne in the Commonwealth Games. Earlier in the day she broke the Scottish record for the 200m freestyle being the first Scottish Women to swim the distance under two minutes and was the fastest qualifier for the final. She was up against Libby Lenton who Australians were looking to win seven golds for the team.

Lenton went out strong and was leading at the last turn, however the sprinter from Australia was overhauled in the last 50 metres by the 400m specialist from Scotland to take the first swimming Gold in a time of 1:57.51 a Games Record.

A second Scottish Gold came soon after in the men's version of McClathcey's favoured event the 400m freestyle. David Davies of Wales who is expecting gold in the 1500m event was leading for the first half of the race. However, as the Welshman faded in the closing stages David Carry of Scotland and Canadian Andrew Hurd took to the front. However, the Scot prevailed in a time of 3:48.17.

On the velodrome Chris Hoy could only manage bronze this time behind Ben Kersten AUS and Jason Queally ENG. However, it still means that Scotland are second in the medal table with only Australia ahead with 3 golds.

Meanwhile it looks like the guys I used to play against of play in tournaments with regularly, the Northern Irish bowlers, are off to a good start. Hopefully a few Northern Irish medals will be coming from the green again this Games.

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