Canada's Damian Warner, Pierce LePage top decathlon at halfway mark
Defending champ Warner holds 129-point lead at Commonwealth Games
Defending champion Damian Warner opened the Commonwealth Games decathlon competition Monday with strong performances across the board to take the lead after Day 1, while fellow Canadian Pierce LePage was in second place.
Warner, the defending champion, started the competition with a season-best 10.29 seconds in the 100 metres, well clear of LePage's 10.62 as the quickest time.
Warner, an Olympic bronze medallist at Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and former world championship silver medallist, also threw a personal-best 15.11 metres in the shot put to finish fourth in that event. He placed second in both the long jump and the high jump with leaps of 7.54 metres and 2.04 metres, respectively. Warner finished the day by placing second behind LePage in the 400 metres and leads the decathlon through five events with 4,509 points.
LePage, from Whitby, Ont., finished the opening day on a high note by winning both the high jump (2.07 metres) and the 400 (47.81 seconds). He trails Warner by 129 points. Lindon Victor of Grenada is 219 points behind Warner.
Warner, a 28-year-old from London, Ont., who now makes his home in Calgary, is coming off a second-place heptathlon showing at the world indoor championships in Birmingham, England. He lost to France's Kevin Mayer by just five points despite setting a Canadian indoor record of 6,343 points.
Warner said he was content with his performance across the first day and didn't rule out a shot at the Games record.
"I'll come out tomorrow and start with the hurdles and if it's there when it comes down to the [closing] 1,500 — I'll go for it," he said.
Nedow grabs shot put bronze
Canada's Tim Nedow won bronze in the men's shot put with a throw of 20.91 metres on his final attempt. Nedow's season-best toss vaulted him from fifth place to third.
New Zealand's Tomas Walsh (21.41) won gold and Nigeria's Chukwuebuka Enekwechi (21.14) got the silver.
South Africans surprise in 100m
South Africa's Akani Simbine and Henricho Bruintjies had a surprising 1-2 finish in the men's 100 metres over Jamaican Yohan Blake, the 2011 world champion and the hot favourite after posting the quickest time of the season and in the first two rounds.
Simbine won in 10.03 seconds, with Bruintjies taking silver in 10.17 and shading Blake by 0.02.
"Being able to run in lane 8-9 with Henricho, and placing first and second with him is amazing — it's a big thing for South African sprinting and South African sport," said Simbine, who was a finalist at last year's world championships and the 2016 Olympics.
In the women's 100, Michelle-Lee Ahye won her first gold medal at a major international meet, celebrating with an air punch as she crossed the finish line in 11.14 seconds.
Her performance relegated Jamaicans Christania Williams (11.21) and Gayon Evans (11.22) to silver and bronze.
The win for Ahye delivered Trinidad and Tobago its first Commonwealth title in the women's 100 and meant a Jamaican hasn't won the title since 2006.
Here are some other highlights around the Games Monday:
79-year-old shooter
Robert Pitcairn has flown in the military and foiled a potential hijacker on a commercial flight. So targeting a record as the oldest competitor to debut at the Commonwealth Games hasn't been too daunting. The 79-year-old Canadian made his debut Monday in the Queen's Prize Pairs Finals in the full bore shooting competition. He and teammate Nicole Rossignol were ninth after the first day of the final.
"I'm very grateful to be here," said Pitcairn, who retired as a pilot in 1988 following a career that started when he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force three decades earlier. "This is my last big pinnacle to solve in my shooting career and I'm going to solve that riddle this week."
At 79 years and nine months old, he broke the record previously held by England's Doreen Flanders, who took part in lawn bowls at Glasgow in 2014 a few weeks after her 79th birthday.
Transgender weightlifter's eligibility challenged
In weightlifting, transgender athlete Laurel Hubbard was a gold-medal favourite and her involvement in the over 90-kilogram class was causing some debate.
The Commonwealth Games Federation had rejected calls from the Australian Weightlifting Federation to have the 40-year-old New Zealander barred from competition, and there were some critics who believed Hubbard should not be allowed because of a perceived physical advantage.
Hubbard competed in weightlifting events as a man until beginning a transition to female aged 35.
The CGF said Hubbard met the eligibility criteria for competition as set out by the international federation and backed its decision to allow her entry. Judging by the loud crowd support when competitors were introduced, it was a popular call.
Hubbard lifted 120 kilograms on her first attempt in the snatch and was well clear of the competition. But, after injuring her left elbow attempting a games record of 132, Hubbard withdrew from the competition.
In Hubbard's absence, Feagaiga Stowers won the gold with a total of 253 kilograms. It was Samoa's second gold of the day after Sanele Mao won the men's 105-kilogram division.
Hubbard will leave without a medal, but also without any bitterness.
"The crowd was absolutely magnificent — I felt just like a big embrace and I wanted to give them something that reflected the best I could do," Hubbard said of her decision to risk pushing for a record. "I have no regret ... I believe to be true to sport you really have to try to be the best you can."
King is squash queen
Joelle King beat England's Sarah-Jane Perry 3-2 to become the first New Zealander to win a women's squash gold medal at the Commonwealth Games.
A day after eliminating one of the sport's veteran superstars, Malaysia's Nicol David, in the semifinals, King won 16-14, 11-8, 6-11, 11-13, 11-8.
It was the 29-year-old King's third time contesting the women's singles. Her previous best effort was bronze in Glasgow four years ago.
England star
Nile Wilson of England won his third gold medal of the artistic gymnastics competition, finishing first in the horizontal bar on the final day. Wilson had earlier won the individual all-around event and was a member of the gold medal-winning England team.
Wilson's England teammate Alice Kinsella won gold on the balance beam Monday, while Australians took two other individual apparatus events— Chris Remkes the vault and Alexandra Eade the floor exercise.
Marios Georgiou of Cyprus won the other individual event Monday, taking gold in the parallel bars final.
Asked how she would celebrate her win, Kinsella said: "With food. I've been looking at the brownies all week, so probably that."
Downed drones
Queensland state police have issued a warning after four drones were flown into restricted Commonwealth Games zones on Sunday.
One man was referred to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, police said, warning that people found guilty of using drones in restricted airspace could face fines up to 250,000 Australian dollars ($192,000 US).
"The message from police is clear: the use of drones in the restricted airspace around venues will not be tolerated," Assistant Commissioner Peter Crawford said.
With files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press