Gold rush at Games after sprint heartbreak

The Commonwealth Games reaches the halfway stage of competition on Friday with the busiest day of gold medal action in prospect.

A whopping total of 42 Games titles were scheduled to be on the line after it became clear that Australian sprinter Sally Pearson had suffered heartbreak in the women's 100m sprint.

Hurdles specialist Pearson won Thursday evening's final, but hours later and after completing her lap of honour, she was disqualified for a false start on a protest by England.

She eventually had her medal taken away, elevating Nigeria's Osayemi Oludamola (11.32) into first and Natasha Mayers of St Vincent and The Grenadines (11.37) into second.

The confusion over who had won gold meant that the medal ceremony was held over until Friday.

"I guess I'm just numb right now, I don't really know what I feel. I'm obviously devastated and disappointed," she said.

"It didn't go my way and that's what I have to deal with. I'm just going to use my emotions and my anger and disappointment and put it into the hurdles and hope that I can come out on top."

With a full programme scheduled in the 60,000-capacity Jawaharlal Nehru stadium (6 golds) and in the swimming pool (10 golds), embattled organisers said they were confident that attendances would rise from the abysmal levels that have marked these Games so far.

On the track it was women's day with the finals of the 400 metres, 1500m and 10,000m as well as the triple jump and the start of the heptahlon. The men had the 110m hurdles final as well as the hammer throw and the climax to the decathlon.

Australian domination of the swimming pool looked set to be extended with several big names such as breaststroker Leisel Jones, backstroker Emily Seebohm and sprinter Brenton Rickard all in action.

Kenya's Jason Dunford qualified fastest in his quest to add the men's 100m butterfly to his 50m gold.

The men's 50m breaststroke final features Tonga's only swimmer in the Games, Amini Fonua, who qualified seventh-fastest.

Malaysia's Nicole David was a strong favourite to add the Commonwealth squash crown to her world titles, while the English top two seeds, Nick Matthew and James Wilstrop, will contest the men's final.

Other gold medals will be won in archery (2), gymnastics (4), cycling (3), shooting (5), weight-lifting (2) and wrestling (3).

Despite the daily litany of things going wrong with the Games, there was a growing sense of pride in the healthy medal haul produced by the home team which has seen them take second place in the table with 14 golds.

That places the hosts well behind Australia but ahead of such traditional Games powerhouses as England, Canada and South Africa.

Most of the Indian gold so far has come from their shooters, weightlifters and wrestlers, but with the tennis having reached the semi-finals stage, there were strong hopes also for men's top seed Somdev Devvarman and women's second seed Sania Mirza.

Devvarman was faced with a trio of Australians in the men's last four, taking on third seed Matt Ebden on Friday, with Mirza needing to get past sixth-seeded Australian Olivia Rogowska to reach the final.
 

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