Cayman Islands win first gold, and Sally Pearson gets redemption
History was made on Monday when the Cayman Islands won their first ever Commonwealth Games gold medal.
Cydonie Mothersill achieved the historic feat after winning the women's 200m final at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi.
The 2001 world championships bronze medallist clocked 22.89 seconds to finish ahead of England's Abiodun Oyepitan (23.26) and Canada's Adrienne Power (23.52).
"I am so excited to bring home the gold. It's my first one and I am savouring the moment," said Mothersill, who won the Cayman Islands' second Commonwealth Games medal in history after Kareem Streete-Thompson
took bronze in the long jump at the 2002 Manchester Games.
Fastest qualifier Elena Artymata of Cyprus did not take part in the final as she was disqualified for stepping out of her lane in the semi-finals.
Sharing the spotlight with Mothersill was Sally Pearson. The Australian, who was disqualified for false start after winning the women's 100m dash, won the 100m hurdles in a Games record time of 12.67.
"Pure relief, so happy. It's been a hard four or five days but I tried to wipe it from my memory," the Olympic silver medallist said.
Canadian Angela Whyte (12.98) and New Zealand's Andrea Miller (13.25) settled for the silver and bronze medals, respectively.
Australia won another gold medal courtesy of Steve Hooker in the men's pole vault. The reigning world champion cleared 5.60m to easily defend his title.
Englishmen Steve Lewis (5.60) and Max Eaves (5.40) took silver and bronze, respectively.
Uganda's Moses Kipsiro and Kenya's Nancy Langat won their second gold medals of the meet. Kipsiro topped the men's 10,000m to add to his victory in the 5,000m last week. Kipsiro clocked 27:57.39 to finish
ahead of Kenyans Daniel Salel (27:57.57) and Joseph Birech (27:58.58).
Langat took advantage of world champion Caster Semenya's absence as she won the women's 800m. The 1,500 gold medallist finished the race in 2:00.01, just ahead of New Zealand's Nikki Hamblin (2:00.05)
and Canada's Diane Cummins (2:00.13).
In the men's 3,000m steeplechase, the Kenyans expectedly made a 1-2-3 finish. Richard Kipkemboi Mateelong claimed the gold medal with a winning time of 08:16.39. World champion Ezekiel Kemboi Cheboi (08:18.47)
finished second while Olympic champion Brimin Kiprop Kipruto (08:19.65) placed third.
The Indians also celebrated on Monday after sweeping the medals in the women's discus throw.
Krishna Poonia won the gold medal with a winning throw of 61.51m. Harwant Kaur settled for the silver medal with a best throw of 60.16 while Seema Antil took bronze with a 58.46 effort.
Poonia's victory was India's first athletics gold in the Commonwealth Games since 1958 when the legendary Milkha Singh topped the 440 yards event in Cardiff.
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