Commonwealth Games 2022: Geraint Thomas wins bronze but early crash costs him gold

Can you believe we are now a week into the games. That has flown by! It was an action packed day as we witnessed the gold medal slip away from Geraint Thomas after an early crash in the men’s cycling time trial this morning. A heated hockey match between England and Canada in the early afternoon was quite the entertainment! We can’t ignore the medal rush in the opening day of the diving where England secured four medals but the stand out has to be watching 17-year-old Andrea Spendolini Siriex win gold in her first Commonwealth Games appearance and Jack Laugher becoming three times Commonwealth champion in the 1m springboard!

If England can maintain this gap they might just top their group. However, anything can happen in the last fifteen minutes and New Zealand will look to get of the marks quickly and bounce back.

What a comeback! Lawrence Okoye first broke onto the athletics scene in 2012 before leaving to go and play in the NFL. This is his first Commonwealth Games since he returned from the NFL in 2019. You can see from his reaction just how much this medal means to him as he parades round the stadium with an England flag.

The third quarter has got England looking like a whole new team as they find themselves seven goals up half way through the quarter! Goal attack Helen Housby is scoring with any ball that comes her way and the mid-court players are winning back almost every ball.

Lawrence Okoye is still sitting firmly in the silver medal position in the men’s discus throw having upped his distance to 64.99m.

Jamaican’s Rasheed Broadbell has just ran a PB and games record! The 21-year-old takes the gold medal and continues the Jamaican legacy in this event, making up for the absence of this teammate Hansle Parchment.

An excellent run for the England boys! Andrew Pozzi takes the bronze medal edging out Joshua Zeller who finished fourth!

Olympic champion Hansle Parchment has had to withdraw from this evening’s final due to a hamstring issue that caused him to miss out on the World Championships last month.

Watch out for England duo Josh Zeller and Andrew Pozzi who will feature in tonight’s final.

England lead by just one goal at the halfway mark! New Zealand have done well to fight back in the second quarter, the roses have played brilliantly so far and the crowd will be cheering them on to see the game out!

We are just under five minutes away from the halfway point in tonight’s netball match. New Zealand have really upped their game as the score is close to equalising with 22 goals for England and 20 for NZ.

After failing his first attempt, Okeyo has bounced back to second place with a distance of 64.97m on his second.

New Zealand strike back scoring two early goals as we enter the second quarter of this netball match.

England are doing well to play in the wide areas going around the outside of this NZ defence. England look calm and controlled and are transitioning fast!

England are doing well to cut through the New Zealand defence. We are currently half way through the first quarter and the roses lead 9-4!

If England win today’s match they play Australia in the semi-finals and if they lose they play Jamaica. In the ideal world Jamaica would be the preferred semi-final opponent but the roses will want to win their last group game. As they say you have to beat the best to be the best!

The roses are looking to defend their 2018 Commonwealth title where they beat Australia in the final in an unbelievably tight game that ended 52-51!

It is not long until the England Roses take on New Zealand in their final group game of pool B! This is set to be their toughest test so far after they beat Uganda comfortably on Tuesday. New Zealand thrashed TTO  on Tuesday winning 80-24! Tonight’s game kicks off at 21:30 and you won’t want to miss it.

England beat New Zealand by seven wickets and have ended their group stages unbeaten! They will play in the semi-final on Saturday against India.

The 17-year-old has only gone and won gold at her first Commonwealth games, WOW!

Her teammate Lois finishes 20 points behind her and will take silver! What a finish for England in the first day of the diving in Birmingham. That is four medals secured already for England in two events.

Eden Cheng finishes fourth just missing out on the bronze medal.

Lois Mae Toulson performs a back 2 1/2 somersault 1 1/2 pike and what a corker that was! She could be within reach of the gold here if Andrea doesn’t deliver!

England’s Eden Cheng finishes off well but she looks to have missed out on the medal run. At only 19-years-old she has plenty of time to improve and she will be a big contender in the future!

It is very close going into the last round but it looks like the gold will be Andrea’s if she can pull of this last dive!

England’s Lois Mae Toulsonis currently in gold medal position in the penultimate round of the women’s 10m platform final!

The thistles are losing by 12 goals with one quarter remaining in their game against South Africa. They are currently sitting fifth in the pool A and it looks like they won’t be making it out of the group.

It was ten years ago today that Jessica Ennis was crowned Olympic champion at London 2012 in the heptathlon!

What a moment that was for British sport…

England’s Jessie Knight finished third in the second heat of the 400m hurdles. The 28-year-old only broke through in 2020 and has only recently given up her job as a primary school teacher to focus on being a full time athlete!

Lina is such an amazing character and her reaction to the race is admirable:

I had the worst prep coming into this, it has been a really rocky ten days trying to navigate everything my body has gone through. I didn’t really even get a training session in so I just wanted to go out and see if I could compete and I gave it my best shot. I am just so happy I got to experience a home crowd, I wanted to cry at the start.

When talking about the interview that came out earlier this week she said:

I just wanted to show what athletes might be going through, running three seconds slower at the world champs was not me and there was an explanation for it. I couldn’t even walk properly a week ago, so to come out and race at the Commonwealth Games I am so proud of myself.

Nielson stumbles! She clipped the second hurdle ruining her rhythm! She carried on well but is forced onto the wrong leg.  She finishes sixth in the end.

Lina Nielson up next in the 400m hurdles. This is the first heat of two tonight.

England were all over this New Zealand team. Their bowling and fielding has been impressive! England are up to bat next let’s hope they keep this going. England need 72 runs to beat New Zealand.

A highlight of this evening will be England’s Lina Nielson competing in the 400m hurdles at 19:38!  Lina was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis a month before her 18th birthday and you can read all about her incredible story here.

The Aussie pushes England’s Jordan Houlden off the silver medal spot in his last dive! What a Games debut for Jordan Houlden though as he will be returning home with a bronze medal.

Laugher leads the table with a score of 447.05! He is now a six time Commonwealth champion at 27-years-old across the diving events! What a winner!

If Laugher takes the gold here it will be his third consecutive Commonwealth title! He has won the Games a total of five times and is also three times Olympic champion.

Three time Olympic medallist Jack Laugher’s penultimate dive is spotless. It looks like he will just edge the gold over Jordan Houlden.

Houlden’s dive is also spotless but the gap has been bridged between the two English lads with 14 points now between them!

There are just 1.4 points between Laugher and Houlden as we enter into the penultimate round! This is going to be close…

Jack Laugher goes for a 3.4 difficulty in his next dive picking up 79.90 points! Jordan Houlden smashes his reverse 2 1/2 somersaults but Laugher is back in the gold medal position!

Scotland has three competitors in this evening’s final with Danny Mabott, Ross Beatie and James Philip Heatly.

This is Jordan Houlden’s first Commonwealth Games and what an impact he is making! Apparently the 24-year-old refused to jump in the water on the first day of a diving taster camp when he was nine as he couldn’t swim! Look at him now!

Another great dive from Houlden puts him 11 points clear at the top of the leaderboard.

The current holder of the gold medal at the 2018 games completes a reverse 2 1/2 somersault dive in pike but he is not happy with his performance!

Jack Laugher’s is in third place after round two with Jordan Houlden topping the leaderboard by 15 points!

Jordan Houlden is in the gold medal position after a smashing dive in his second attempt overtaking teammate Jack!

 Jack Laugher’s second dive is superb! Cool, calm and collected after his shaky start! He is back in the gold medal position.

England’s Jordan Houlden is ahead after the first round in the men’s diving 1m springboard final with a score of 81.60! 2018 Games champion, Jack Laugher is eighth place and will need to up his game if he is to defend his title!

England’s Mark Swan finished second in the men’s lightweight category. He was ten points behing Malaysia’s Bonnie Bunyau Gustin who took gold. This is Swan’s first Commonwealth Games and what a debut!

England beat Canada 11-2! They fall four goals short of topping India in the group, but an impressive performance nevertheless! The brawl earlier in the match weakened the Canadian side and they struggled to bounce back following the sending off of Panesar.

England are 11-2 up now after a couple of misses in the final minutes. One minute of play left and they are not gonna score four goals in the next 60 seconds!

Canada are changing their goalie for the third time. Interesting, not sure what the tactic behind that is!

Good save by the Canadian goalie to deny England chasing India’s goal tally! Moments later though, England have another they just need five goals now! At the rate they are scoring this might just happen.

England are 9-1 up after an eventful match! The side need to score a goal a minute now if they are to overtake India and top the group!! They need six goals in just under seven minutes!

Pitchford and Ho edge the victory over the young Singapore teenagers by three games to two. A close match up in the end as the duo are through to the third round!

England are at the top group B along with NZ as the group stages come to a close in the T20. It is the first time cricket has featured in the Commonwealth Games and England are yet to disappoint.

Despite missing their captain Heather Knight who is out due to injury, England have won both games in their campaign so far with a comfortable win over South Africa on Tuesday with 26 runs separating the sides.

New Zealand are the biggest threat to England in group B and tonight is expected to be a close match up to decide the winner of group B!

Nick Bandurak drag flicks the ball into the top corner giving England their fifth of the match, they need to get 9 more goals in the last quarter if they are to catch up India!

England duo are leading by two games but Singapore look to retaliate as they are 5 points up in the third game.

Liam Pitchford and Tin-Tin Ho take on the duo from Singapore in the round of 32. England are currently in the lead with one game to none.

Not sure what happened there but seems to be a bit of a brawl going on originally between Griffiths and Panesar after their sticks get caught! The rest of the lads are quick to join in and the ref brings out a red card for Panesar!!!

Think that served him right after grabbing the English player by the neck!

Loan and Garin Croft are both guaranteed to finish with a medal after the twins from Pembrokshire make it through to the semi-finals! 

With just minutes left of the second quarter England need to score 10 more goals if they are to top pool B and overtake India.

We hadn’t ridden the course with a closed road properly and I just went in too hot. I thought it was a sweeping left, which means no breaks and I clipped the barrier leg on the exit. Then I struggled to get the chain back on and my break was a bit bent, but it is what it is.

After I tried to re-focus and get stuck into the ride, my legs felt pretty good and to come away with a medal is okay in the end.

It is super special, I thought to myself before the race if i recover my legs enough after the Tour de France I can do something good here. I could tell after the first couple of climbs I was in for a good ride. I didn’t think i’d be so close so I am really happy with that, it was the best time trial I have ever done!

My confidence is sky high now, and I am looking forward to the road race on Sunday!

Newson just edges the victory over teammate Olivia Broome by two points! Broome increased her PB by 4kg in today’s competition to win the silver medal! The bronze medal goes to Kenya’s Hellen Wawira Kariuki in her first Commonwealth Games.

England have secured an early goal in their last group game against Canada! They are already through to the semi-finals but Phil Roper’s goal in the first two minutes could put them well on the way to topping the group, if they keep this up!

Olivia Broome and Zoe Newson are going head-to-head in the women’s lightweight final! Zoe Newson is currently in the gold medal position but that could all change!

Northern Ireland’s Aidan Walsh returns to the medal rostrum for his second concessive Games. He came away with silver in 2018 and he is heading towards another medal after beating England’s Harris Akbar in the quarter-finals.

Thanks Greg! I’ll be taking you through this evening’s events! 

We have an interesting evening ahead, India have just beat Wales 4-1 in their final group game of pool B! England will need to beat Canada by 14 goals at 16:00 today if they are to finish top of Pool B.

Coming up, England take on New Zealand in the cricket at 18:00 and the same nations meet later on in the netball at 21:30!

You will not want to miss the diving as England’s Jack Laugher attempts to defend his 2018 title at 20:15!

It is a quieter evening in the athletics with five gold medals up for grabs! The men’s 110m hurdles will be one to watch with England’s Andrew Pozzi and Josh Seller competing.

And the rest of the action promises to be equally exciting. 

I’ll leave you in the more-than-capable hands of Eloise Martin who’ll be your guide for the rest of the day. 

It’s easy to forget what a ride Fred Wright dished up. He’s not known as a time trialist but he got better during the course and finished strongly. A deserved silver for the Englishman. 

He ended up only 28 seconds back of Rohan Dennis’ gold-medal winning time with the crash having cost him at least 30 seconds…

He just couldn’t pip Fred Wright’s – who, remember, went in the first wave – time. 

So the podium looks like this…

GOLD – Rohan Dennis 

SILVER – Fred Wright

BRONZE – Geraint Thomas

It’s a case of what might have been for the Welshman – would he have won gold without the tumble at the start? We cannot be sure but there’s a good chance he would have made up the 28 seconds he finished behind Dennis if he had stayed upright early on. 

It’s now a battle between Thomas  and Fred Wright for the silver. 

He’s looking good but has too much to do to beat Rohan Dennis it seems. 

Of Rohan Dennis – that crash, it appears, will prevent him from winning the gold…

In the men’s hockey – it’s deep into the third quarter. 

He’s gone past Bigham – there was a two-minute gap – and the Australian is looking strong. 

The Englishman was in the hunt for a medal (he was fifth at that last time check) but he overcooks a turn and crashes into a barrier, flipping over onto his back. He’s force to change bike and that, you have to think is is hopes of a podium place over. 

He’s 32 seconds back of Rohan Dennis at the second time checkpoint. But he’s still in second place. 

There seems to be an issue with the bike – he’s on his radio to his team. We’re not sure what the problem is but you think if he was to stop again that would definitely be all hope of gold over…

He’s keeping going, though, and he’s not giving up. 

News that he was second at the first time check would have galvanised him and the crowd are helping him as well.

Remarkable considering that crash – he’s 30.94 secs back of Rohan Dennis’ time. Remember that crash probably cost him 30 seconds. 

Has a sizeable advantage over everyone – the Australian is over 30 seconds quicker than the rest of the field at the first checkpoint. 

The Englishman is definitely in the hunt for a medal. 

A word of caution, however…It’s a hilly course and it will punish anyone who has gone off too fast. 

At the first time check. The Kiwi is a dark horse for this and he’s started strongly. 

He’s only just started but his charge could be over already…

It must have been on turn five or six (it was that early on…), the Welshman attacked the turn too quickly and although he nearly stayed up right he went down. It took a few seconds to sort it out and that’s probably lost him at least 30 seconds…

That’s the worst possible start.

For Geraint Thomas. It’s technical and he comes into it in good form.

He won Commonwealth golf in the road race in Glasgow eight years ago. Can he win another here in the time trial? 

This really was a practise for all the divers in the 1m springboard with all of them making the final later today. The scores this morning won’t carry through to the final.

Defending champion Laugher was in fourth behind Australia’s Shixin Li, Scotland’s James Heatly and England’s Jordan Houlden. 

Geraint Thomas goes at 2.29. 

Jack Laugher finds himself in third spot with four rounds to go. 

Australia’s Shixin Li leads on 131.70, Scotland’s James Heatly is second on 129.90, with the defending champion on 126.00. 

 Fred Wright leads after posting a time of 46 mins 47.52secs. Lucas Plapp of Australia is second two minuates back with Wales’ Owain Doull third. 

Chris Boardman on BBC comms reckons Wright could well end up with a medal. He now has an anxious wait to see if Boardman is right. The second wave of riders starts at 2 with former Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas of Wales getting his title bid under way at 2.29. 

The men’s 1m springboard preliminary round has just got under way. England’s reigning champion Jack Laugher will be sixth to go. Scotland’s James Heatly nabbed the bronze four years ago and is joined by compatriots Ross Beattie  and Danny Mabbott . Jordan Houlden  also  goes for England.

Laugher won three titles at the World Championships earlier this year and is favourite to get the title once again. 

England’s Fred Wright is the fastest men through 32.8km. 

He’s a full 1min 53 secs ahead of Australia’s Lucas Plapp whose medal charge has been undone by that slow bike change earlier.

I‘m here at the time trial in West Park, Wolverhampton, where England’s Anna Henderson earlier took silver in the women’s event. Everyone is now waiting for Geraint Thomas in the men’s TT. The Welshman, fresh from finishing third overall at the Tour de France, is last off at 14:29. But there’s a great story already out on the road. The first rider who went down the start ramp a little earlier on, Chris Symonds, is a 48 year-old Ghaniain who has worked as a doorkeeper at the House of Commons for the last 20 years. He’s had an interesting athletic career. Symonds, whose father is English and whose mother hails from the West African nation, competed at the 2006 Commonwealths in Melbourne in triathlon, then switched to the time trial for Delhi 2010. At last year’s world time trial championships in Flanders he finished last, 18 minutes behind the winner Filippo Ganna. But in his defence he was the oldest rider ever to compete at the worlds and paid £800 out of his own pocket to be there.

The Australian has to change bike (I think because he jammed the chain, at least that’s what the legend Chris Boardman on BBC comms reckons…)  and it’s a veeeerrrrrrrrry sllllloooowwww change – he had lost a bit of time to Fred Wright but was still well in contention BUT that sorry change has all but ended his medal push. 

In the last two heats…

Kenya’s Dan Kiviasi Asamba led home Malaysia’s Russel Alexander Nasir Taib in the seventh heat. With Canada’s Brendon Rodney winning the last heat with Delan Edwin of St Lucia taking the other spot in the tomorrow’s semis. 

And England’s Fred Wright has started well. Wright is second through the first checkpoint (8.9km), just four seconds back of Australia’s Lucas Plapp. There are still some riders to go, however…

A hat-trick from Grace Balsdon helped the hosts register an easy win over the Home Nations rival. 

That result means England qualify from top of Pool A, ahead of India. they will face New Zealand in the last four. The Indians play Australia in the other semi-final. 

On the win…

“I’m happy to get through. The aim was to just make the next round and get to the semis tomorrow.”

On experience at championships…

“It’s all about experience. Regardless of form, fitness it comes back to experience. For me I’ve done this lots of times and I drew on that.”

On running in front of a home crowd…

“It’s ridiculous! It’s a morning session and it’s a full stadium why are we not having more events in the UK? The support [of this crowd] is humbling.”

The Englishman runs 20.92 secs in the sixth heat to go through. Jamaica’s Kadrian Goldson nabbed the second spot with 21.19secs. 

They’ve been bowled out by South Africa for 46, their lowest ever score…

All the big names are through so far…

Fourth heat – Trinidad and Tobago’s Jareem Richards  wins easily in 20.68 secs with Sibusiso of Eswatini taking the other qualification spot in second. 

Fifth heat – Ghana’s Joseph Paul Amoah and Kyle Greaux of Trinidad and Tobago eased through. 

There are three heats left. 

Here are the decathlon standings…

1. Cedric Dubler (Australia) 1840
1. Lindon Victor  (Grenada) 1840

3. Alec Diamond (Australia) 1805

4. Kurt Felix (Grenada) 1751

5. Kendrick Thompson (Bahamas) 1739

6. Karo Iga (PNG) 1676

7. Harry Kendall (England) 1644

On the win…

“I am enjoying myself, this is my event and the crowd is amazing they gave me the energy I needed.”

On getting over his World Championships disappointment…

“What happened in Oregon is behind me now – this is my home crowd and there is a lot more there…I need to trust my speed endurance and do what I have to do.”

He had a following wind but that was still impressive as he won in 20.30secs. 

Kenya’s Mike Mokamba Nyang’au takes the second qualifying spot. 

Can the Englishman get over his Gold Coast disqualification here? He has a real chance to challenge for the medals, so let’s hope so. 

First  – Emmanuel Eseme of Cameroon and Dwight St Hillaire of Trinidad and Tobago came through the first heat. 

Second – Shajar Abbas of Pakistan and Nigeria’s Udodi Chudi Onwuzurike were the qualifiers. 

England lead Wales 2-0 at half-time. 

There will be eight of them with only the top two guaranteed to make it through. 

It was a slow second heat and so the world champion knew he had to finish in the top five to make Saturday’s final. 

Joining him in the battle for gold will be England’s Matt Stonier, Abel Kipsang of Kenya, Scotland’s Neil Gourley and New Zealand’s Samuel Tanner. 

Of the 1,500m, effectively a semi-final. The Scot is the world champion and favourite here. 

Matt Stonier goes for England and Piers Copeland for Wales and Neil Gourley also goes for Scotland.  

The Aussie led a breakaway of six and among the top five were Kerr, Heywood and Giles  – so all three Home Nations’ runner are through to Saturday’s final. 

Of the men’s 1,500. He didn’t make it out of the semis in last month’s World Championships, can he do well here? 

The Tokyo bronze medallist in in a tough (ish) race with Elliot Giles going for England and Heywood for Wales. 

The first five of both heats go through with the next two quickest making it to Saturday’s final. 

New Zealand looked strong as they beat South Africa 4-1. 

Now on the University of Birmingham pitches are England and Wales – the score is 0-0 in the first quarter. 

The Englishwoman was leading but the Australian had led at every checkpoint and she, as expected, reeled in the home hope’s time to win in 40mins 5.20 secs. 

Henderson took the silver 33.35 secs back, with Georgia Williams winning the bronze, 1min 20.07secs behind. 

After the 100m the favourite Lindon Victor leads. 

Having finished in the time trial – her time 40mins 38.55secs puts her on top spot BUT Grace Brown is still out on the course and is looking strong. 

In the women’s time trial. 

The Australian went though the 19.2km checkpoint in 28mins 50.23secs. That’s a 23-second advantage over England’s Anna Henderson in second and New Zealand’s Georgia Williams in third, who’s 46 seconds behind. 

It was effortless from the 100m champion who won in 22.80 secs. The Jamaican star lead home Scotland’s Beth Dobbin and Australia’s Jacinta Beecher. 

In the Fourth heat Nigeria’s Favour Ofili won in 22.71 secs from Gambia’s Gina Bass and Malawi’s Asimenya Simwaka. 

In the women’s time trail. And it’s Grace Brown who leads. The Aussie went through the 8.9km mark in 13mins 55.6 secs. England Anna Henderson is second, 4.53 secs down, with New Zealand’s Williams back in third 13secs back. 

In the women’s time trail – it’s still England’s Anna Henderson who leads. Favourite Grace Brown is still to go through the first checkpoint at 8.9 km. 

Is second in the third heat of the 200m. The Welsh sprinter trailed Jamaica’s Natalliah Whyte who eased to the in 23.61. 

Brier ran 24.04, she can go much quicker than that, but it’s a case of job done for her, getting through. Guernsey’s Abi Galpin qualified in third. 

Namibia’s Christine Mboma, the Olympic silver medalist, won the the first heat in 23.20. She’s definitely one to watch with world champion Shericka Jackson not taking part…

India’s 400m specialist Hima Das won the second heat 23.42

In the women’s time trail. I’ll keep you updated on what’s happening on the street of Wolverhampton. 

They were six down against Australia but have ended up winning 57-55. They will face the loser in the England vs New Zealand match which takes place later. It’s a very strong final four with any of the quartet able to win gold on their day. 

It’s currently 50-50 against Australia with just six minutes of the match left…

In the World Championships and he’s off to a good start here. He runs 10.76 (915 points) and looks strong in the defence of his title here. 

Cedri Dubler is also a strong contender and the Australian is second.

Harry Kendall is down on his PB of 10.77 as he runs 11.25 (806 points). 

The 100m segment of the decathlon gets the action under way. 

Well, it should be under way but there’s a bit of a delay with England’s Harry Kendall struggling with pinning his number to his top…school boy error! 

In the women’s time trial. 

But the Aussies are looking the stronger, they lead 46-40 with one quarter to go.  

So with the women’s cycling time trial about to begin here’s all you need to know. 

• Course distance is 29km
• It takes place in Wolverhampton
• There are 36 competitors with one minute gaps between each start
• Australia’s Grace Brown is one of the favourites, along with Scotland’s Neah Evans and the Isle of Man’s Lizzie Holden
• Abi  Smith, Anna Henderson and Joscelin Lowden go for England 
• Anna Morris, Elynor Backstedt and Leah Dixon will be Wales’ participants

Australia lead Jamaica 39-36 with five minutes to go in the third quarter. 

Meanwhile in the early hockey clash between New Zealand and South Africa the Kiwis lead 3-0 in the third quarter. They are looking strong contenders for the gold.

It’s 30-29 to Australia over Jamaica. 

Canada’s Ryan Bester has just beaten Wales’ Daniel Salmon 21-10 in round four. The Welshman, who won gold in the pairs,  just didn’t have his A-game this morning – has goes again at 11.30. 

Australia and Jamaica are both unbeaten – four wins from four – and are currently facing each other. They’re into the second quarter at the moment and the Aussies l ead 19-18. Looks as though we have a tight clash on our hands. 

Of the disbelief and joy Eilish McColgan felt as she won golf last night. 

• In the cycling Women’s road time trial from 10am
• Wales’ Geraint Thomas going for gold in men’s time trial just gone midday
• England take on Wales in the hockey from 11am
• On the track Scotland’s 1,500m world champion Jake Wightman and Josh Kerr  go in the heats from 11.25
• And the diving gets underway with England’s Jack Laugher in the 1m springboard qualifying just after 1.

Day seven begins with the hosts on a high. Wednesday saw an England medal rush with the judo team weighing in with success, Emily Campbell adding to her Olympic weightlifting silver with gold in Birmingham and Katarina Johnson-Thompson defending her heptathlon title. 

But perhaps the highlight of the day was seeing Scotland’s Eilish McColgan emulate her mother’s 1986 win as she held off the challenge of Kenya’s Irene Cheptai down the home straight to win 10,000m gold. 

After winning her first heptathlon for four years KJT later revealed she had also been battling the heartache of losing her grandma Mary last week.

“She unfortunately passed away a couple of days after [the World Championships], so it’s been a tough week,” said a teary Johnson-Thompson. “I’m just happy to get through it. It’s been particularly hard because the last home champs at Glasgow Indoors [in 2019] she was here, so it was quite hard not to see her face in the crowd.”

On her career-extending win she added: “It feels amazing, this competition has served me so well and I got my first gold here and that kick started my career back then. I’ve had a tough couple of years, hopefully this is the start of my next new career!

“It has been hard, I have had moments where I didn’t know if I wanted to carry on. To come out here and just get through it and actually get the gold, I have proved to myself that pushing through was worth it.”

For McColgan the win, in front of her mum, the 1991 world champion and double commonwealth gold medallist Liz, the victory was all the more remarkable as she had seven weeks out suffering from Covid along with other injuries in the run up to last month’s World Championships where she finished 10th. 

“It has just been an up and down year with Covid, another illness, a couple of niggles at the wrong time,” she said. “But I knew the fitness was in me. I couldn’t have asked for more.”

Today sees more action on the track with the men’s decathlon getting under way, the men’s 1,500m heats and the men’s and women’s 200m heats. 

The roads of Birmingham will be closed with the men’s and women’s individual time trials taking place and there is host of other action including hockey, cricket and lawn bowls. 

Stay here for all the action.