Commonwealth Games 2022: England into women’s hockey final – live! | Commonwealth Games 2022

One of the contenders for women’s 200m gold, Namibia’s Christine Mboma, has cruised through her semi-final in 22.93, with Australia’s Ella Connolly in second.

A quick update from elsewhere: Canada beat Cyprus in the men’s beach volleyball to set up a semi-final with England, while England’s women are playing their quarter-final against New Zealand right now, with their opponents one set up.

A little earlier on, Zharnel Hughes secured his place in the men’s 200m final, which is on Saturday night. Hughes won his semi-final in a time of 20.32.

In the men’s shot put, it’s a one-two for New Zealand, with Tom Walsh edging out Jacko Gill, who set a personal best. England’s Scott Lincoln was third on.

Time for some athletics action, and the women’s 200m semi-finals. Nigeria’s Favour Ofili wins the first of them with a bit to spare – but there’s a big battle behind her to qualify. Jamaica’s Nattaliah Whyte gets the automatic spot in a photo-finish, ahead of the Gambia’s Gina Bass, who will have to wait and see if her time is quick enough.

Synchro diving gold for England!

That’s me done for the day, I’ll be back tomorrow for what could be a super/splendid/spectacular Saturday. Niall McVeigh is here to take you through the final few hours. Goodnight!

Thanks, James. Let’s dive straight in with an important update from the aquatics centre …

Diving: In the men’s synchronised 10m (very high!) platform final the English pair of Noah Williams and Matty Lee are currently in *whisper it* gold medal position after five of the six dives. Can they hold off the Canadian and Australian pairs to hold onto the gold? Can Ben Cutmore and Kyle Kothari, the second English duo – who are currently in fourth – squeak their way onto the podium? There’s only one way to find out – DIVE!

Athletics: In the women’s 400m semi-finals both Victoria Ohurougu and Jodie Williams have qualified for the final.

Katherine Merry on the Beeb comms had this to say about Ohurougu (sister of Christine)

I have been impressed by Victoria Ohuruogu all season and she really is in the form of her life. Nicely done. She’s looking very good indeed. The famous name in 400m running and the experience that her sister has is rubbing off.”

Phew – that was a pulsating match. I was so engrossed watching the shootout on my phone that I didn’t notice the coverage on the tv flick over, Monty Don in a lovely navy tunic in his potting shed is a bit of a comedown from those penalties. Righto, I’ve got a bit of time left before I hand the blogging baton over to Niall McVeigh for the evening session, let’s see what’s occurin’ shall we?

Hockey: Hannah Martin… SCORES! The ball trickles inside the post, Martin wheels away with joy and is mobbed by her teammates! England go through to the final and will play the winner of India v Australia in the final.

Great scenes. Goalkeeper Maddy Hinch the star of the shootout with a couple of amazing saves.

Hockey: Great keeping from England’s Maddy Hinch! Izzy Petter then steps up to score! England are a whisker away!

Hockey: England miss too! these pens look hard! Sure enough New Zealand miss their next. Still no goals. Lily Owlsey up for England, jinking and turning… saved! Still no goals!

Hockey: New Zealand miss their first penalty!

Hockey: That was an enthralling end to the women’s hockey as England pressed for a clincher but alas the clock ticks down and the match will be decided by a penalty shootout.

Hockey: Close! England have a couple of penalty corners but are thwarted by the kiwi keeper who throws herself around the goal to deny the home team. Tick follows tock – about nine minutes to go before we reach the dreaded P word.

Hockey: Less jolly hockey sticks and more squeaky bum time over at the University where the women’s hockey semi final between England and New Zealand is still deadlocked at 0-0. The final quarter has just begun.

Are we heading for penalties? Or a Super-Over maybe?

Diving: Canada’s Mia Vallee takes Gold in the 1m springboard final, Australia’s Brittany Mae O’Brien gets the Silver and – with a fantastic, nerveless final dive – England’s Amy Rollinson grabs the Bronze!

“Gutsy, gritty, and determined” says the commentator of the 18-year-old from Luton.

Sean Ingle is soaking it all up in Birmingham. Here’s his preview of what could be a ‘super Saturday’ MK II.

Diving: Great fourth dive from England’s Amy Rollinson who notches up a 61.50 from the judges to see her work her way into fourth place as it stands. She’ll need a barnstormin’ final dive to be in with a chance of getting on the podium.

I saw this earlier and it blew my mind. Well worth a watch:

Hockey: Half time in the women’s semi final – New Zealand 0 England 0. A bit of a disjointed, nervy affair so far.

Diving: In the women’s 1m springboard final England’s Amy Elisabeth Rollinson has slipped down to sixth place after three rounds. Grace Elizabeth Reid of Scotland sits above her and then it is the Aussie trio of Esther Qin, Georgia Sheehan and Brittany Mae O’Brien in fourth, third, second respectively. Canada’s Mia Jolie Doucet Vallee is in the gold medal position and 19 points clear of the crowd. Two rounds to go!

Cycling news:

Hockey: It’s still all square in the women’s hockey semi-final between England and New Zealand, it’s been a frenetic start but is still goalless half-way through the second quarter. Feels like there is a big moment coming…

The women’s hockey semi-final between England and New Zealand is goalless after the first quarter while at the aquatics centre, England’s Amy Rollinson leads the 1m women’s springboard final after the first round.

Gymnastics gold for England’s Marfa Ekimova! The 17-year-old has held on after the floor exercises in the all-round final, beating Cypriot Anna Sokolova by 0.200 points. She becomes the first English athlete to win Commonwealth gold in rhythmic gymnastics.

England are into the men’s beach volleyball semi-finals! The Gambian pair won the second set 22-20, but England prevail in the tie-break set after a dramatic match point where the Bello twins twice dug the ball out before finding a gap.

England advance to the semi-finals, where they will play Canada or Cyprus. The other semi-final will see Australia against Rwanda, the African nation shocking New Zealand in their earlier quarter-final.

Over at the Coventry Arena, George Ramm has won bronze for England in the men’s freestyle wrestling after beating Nauru’s Lowe Bigham. The 65kg category final saw India’s Bajrang Punia defeat Canada’s Lachlan McNeil to win gold.

“Runner’s dreams crushed by own penis…” as far as sporting headlines go this is certainly up there. The ‘problem’ for 400m runner Albert Nonino was firmly ‘down there’ as a ‘wardrobe malfunction’ hindered his performance in the 400 metres at the U20 World Athletics Championships in Cali, Colombia. I can’t put anything else in inverted commas.

This is like one of those horrible dreams you have before a job interview or a date. Sending solidarity Albert. Shush at the back!

Beach volleyball: The sun is beating down in Costa del Smithfield as English twins Javier and Joaquin Bello storm into a one set lead in their quarter-final against Gambian duo Sainey Jawo and Mbye Babou Jarra. Some excellent volleyball on display in that first set which the England pair took 21 points to 16 in front of a rapturous crowd. Set two is about to start…

Furrowed pitch leads to furrowed brows…

Some news from over in the footy blog – apparently – the pitch at the Coventry Building Society Arena is in a right old state after the venue hosted the rugby sevens at the Commonwealth Games.

As a result, Coventry’s meeting with Rotherham, currently scheduled for 3pm on Sunday, has been thrown into doubt, and the home club have confirmed that a pitch inspection will take place tomorrow:

A feast for the eyes right here.

These daily picture galleries from the Games are a thing of real beauty:

Table Tennis: England duo Liam Pitchford and Tin-Tin Ho have gone down in a razor wire quarter final match against Indian pair Achanta Sharath Kamal and Akula Sreeja. Gutting for England, who are eliminated after being pipped 11-9 in the deciding game.

Lovely piece this, by Sachin Nakrani of this parish.

Netball: Wales go down to Malawi over in the NEC arena, unable to cling on to an early lead they lost a tight match 56 points to 62. That result means Malawi take seventh position and Wales finish eighth.

Who else is left to play you ask?

Gymnastics: 17-year-old Marfa Ekimova is heading (geddit?) for a medal in the individual all-around final, but what colour will it be?

Here’s the crowd well and truly getting behind England’s Harry Kendall in the pole vault event of the decathlon earlier today. Kendall surfed their hollers to clear 5m40 and notch a lifetime best.

The 3m men’s in Britain is so tough, it’s so hard to get on the big stage. I’ve worked so hard. I’ve had to be patient, I’ve had to wait for it, really. It’s thanks to Jack for seeing me in training and seeing how good I can be and trusting in me, believing in me.”

Here’s a nice piece from Tumaini who is our man in the shallow end at the aquatic centre:

This is a nice moment from this morning:

A touching moment for Cindy Sember who had just qualified for the women’s 100m hurdles final.

Beach volleyball: The Aussie duo of Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho are too strong for the spirited Scottish pairing of Lynne Beattie and Melissa Coutts. The Scots put up a fine display in front of an appreciative crowd but it is the Australians who progress to the semi-final.

Badminton: England’s Jessica Pugh and Callum Hemming have beaten Katherine Wynter and Joel Angus of Jamaica 21-11 and 21-7 to take their place in the mixed doubles quarter-finals.

Gold! Always believe in!

I also like the Team Scotland hashtag ‘Time for Heroes’. Wonder if these lads are any good with orb in hand?

Scotland’s George Miller becomes the Games’ oldest gold medallist!

Beach Volleyball: Sunshine beats down on the sands of… Smithfield as Scotland’s pairing of Lynne Beattie and Melissa Coutts take on the Australian duo of Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho in the quarter finals. The Aussies have just taken the first set 21-11.

Decathlon: The Australian’s dominated the pole vault in the end – Cedric Dubler clearing 5metres but failing to go over 5m10. Still it gives him a narrow lead of 39 points over defending champ – the appropriately named Lindon Victor of Grenada.

Daniel Golubovic is in bronze place 100 points behind fellow countryman Dubler and 150 points behind them is… another Aussie – Alec Diamond.

England’s Harry Kendall is in sixth position, a medal might well be out of his reach but it’ll be a thrilling finale this evening in the stadium. The gold medal could go anywhere with just the javelin and 1500m to go.

Bowls: Just nipping back to say that Scotland are looking like they are going to take the spoils in the para mixed pairs B2/B3 gold medal match, they’ve gone into an 11-6 lead with four ends to go. Wales need to go some now to get back into the match.

UPDATE: Make that 14-9 to Scotland with two ends to go!

I’ve got my eyes on fridge… and the Decathlon pole vault, Harry Kendall bows out after failing to clear 4m50. Aussie Cedric Dubler joins in the action and clears 4m70 by a huge distance!

Here’s Hazel! Lady Irvine welcomes us to afternoon coverage on the Beeb. There’s a slight lull in the action so I’m going to grab a spot of lunch, will be back v shortly but behave yourselves, especially you.

Decathlon: Pole vault – Harry Kendall clears 4m40 at the final attempt! That’s a lifetime best for the Englishman, he’ll now have three stabs at 4m50! All the while current leader Cedric Dubler sits on the sidelines waiting for the bar to get to somewhere near his level.

Decathlon: England’s Harry Kendall made a vault of 4m.30 and is on a second attempt at a lifetime best of 4m40 (his current best is 4m34) the crowd will him on and… so close he nearly sneaks over but just nudges the pole off with his chest. The crowd grown and Kendall gives the pole a wry smile from the chunky matt. He’ll have one final shot at it shortly.