Stephanie Mcpherson (right) of Jamaica sprints to victory ahead of compatriots Novlene Williams-Mills (left), who won silver, and bronze meadallist Christine Day in the Women's 400M final at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. (Reuters)
Stephanie McPherson needed the heart of a lion and every ounce of effort to lead a Jamaican clean sweep of the medals in the women’s 400 metres at the Commonwealth Games on Tuesday.
With England’s Olympic silver medallist Christine Ohuruogu opting to run only in the 4x400 relay, and very little separating the trio of McPherson, Novlene Williams-Mills and Christine Day in qualifying, the stage was set for the Jamaicans to battle it out amongst themselves for the honours.
Botswana’s Amantle Montsho, who took gold in New Delhi four years ago, burst out of the blocks but was reeled in by the Jamaicans and on the home straight McPherson powered her way through to finish in a time of 50.67 seconds. Williams-Mills claimed silver in 50.86 seconds and Day snatched bronze ahead of Montsho in 51.09.
“I came out here with a lion heart,” an exhausted McPherson told reporters. “I had a race plan and what my coach told me to do. My coach said, ‘You don’t need to fight, just relax and swing your arms’ and I did just that.
“The three of us came out here with the intention of coming one, two, three and we did just that.”
Jamaica also enjoyed success in the women’s triple jump, Kimberly Williams conquering the windy conditions on a chilly night at Hampden Park to win gold with 14.21 metres, while Andrew Riley won the men’s 110 metres hurdles in 13.32 seconds to ensure Jamaica claimed three golds on the night. Kenya dominated the women’s 10,000 metres to take their own clean sweep of the medals in a slow final. Joyce Chepkirui made a late dash to sneak past Florence Kiplagat and finish in a personal best time of 32:09.35. Emily Chebet won the bronze.
“It was so close near the end but I knew my body was in good shape,” Chepkirui said. “I was trying to push her (Kiplagat) in the last 200 as I know she can run a lot faster. I’m happy I could win at my first Commonwealth Games and I’m so, so happy it was Kenya for one, two and three.”
Faith Chepngetich Kibiegon also won gold for Kenya when she triumphed in the women’s 1,500 metres in a time of 4:08.94 ahead of England’s Laura Weightman and Canadian Kate Van Buskirk.
Canada also celebrated two golds thanks to Damien Warner, who won the men’s decathlon with 8,282 points, and Jim Steacy who threw 74.16 metres to win the men’s hammer event ahead of England’s Nicholas Miller and Scotland’s Mark Dry.
Yesterday, Jamaica’s world silver medallist Warren Weir got his Games campaign off to a confident start, cruising through his 200m heat in a comfortable 20.71 seconds.
In the absence of double world and Olympic champion Usain Bolt, Weir, who also won bronze behind Bolt and Yohan Blake at the 2012 London Olympics, is one of the hot favourites to claim the 200m to make it a sprint double for Jamaica after Kemar Bailey-Cole won the 100m gold on Monday.
Neither Bailey-Cole nor 100m bronze medallist Nickel Ashmeade are competing in the 200m, but Weir will have compatriots Jason Livermore and national champion Rasheed Dwyer for company. Also qualifying for semi-finals will be Daniel Bailey of Antigua and South African Wayde van Niekerk.
In the men’s 400m hurdles, Wales’ defending champion Dai Greene, the 2011 world gold medallist who has struggled with injury since, failed to come through his heat, a lack of track time showing as he faded badly down the back stretch.
On the fourth day of Commonwealth Games track and field at Hampden Park, home to the Scotland national football team, seven golds were up for grabs in an exceptionally high-quality evening session.
In a late night event, Grenada’s Olympic champion Kirani James, still just 21, was racing in the men’s 400m, the line-up including the Trinidad and Tobago trio of Jarrin Solomon, Renny Quow and Olympic bronze medallist Lalonde Gordon. South African van Niekerk, Bahamas duo Chris Brown and Latoy Williams complete the eight-man field.
Nigeria’s 100m champion Blessing Okagbare will look to take another step in her bid for a glorious treble when she begins her assault on the 200m in the heats. Elsewhere, untouchable New Zealander Valerie Adams bids for a third shot put title, while world 800m record-holder David Rudisha of Kenya races in the semifinals.
