Commonwealth Games 2010: Canada’s exceptional performance
The seventh day of the 19th Commonwealth Games turned out to be a big one for the Canadians as their athletes clinched many medals, elevating their medal tally significantly. The athletes gave brilliant performances both in the pool and the track.
Australian Matthew Mitcham won the silver medal in the 1 metre springboard event on Sunday. The winner of the gold medal in this event was none other than the Canadian diver Alexandre Despatie, while the bronze medal was taken away by the countryman Scott
Robertson.
It was the first Commonwealth Games medal won by Mitcham, while Despatie has long been a champion of springboard diving. He has won a couple of medals at different Commonwealth Games, the first one being the gold medal at the Kuala Lumpur Games, when he
was only 13. Despatie has the honour of being the 1 metre and 3 metre springboard world champion for two years (2005-2007).
Giving a post event interview in New Delhi, Mitcham was reported as saying, “He (Despatie) has been around for a long time and he has been dominating the springboard for a large number of years and it would be unrealistic of me to think I would beat him”.
Mitcham went on to say, “I was really quite surprised I managed to keep up with him for the entire event. At one stage I was beating him. The rest of the time I was just a few points behind him.”
The silver medallist added, “I am not comfortable on a springboard. God, I am so nervous when I get up on a springboard because I don’t know what it is going to do underneath me but these ones behaved.”
Mitcham’s one of the most significant victories was the one at the Beijing Olympics. It was the 10 metre platform event at the Olympics where he won the gold medal. He will be contending the same event, this time in New Delhi on Wednesday evening. He hopes
to win the gold medal again, since this is going to be his pet event. Mitcham will also be participating in the 3 metre synchronized springboard and 10 metre synchronized springboard platform event as the 19th Commonwealth Games, New Delhi.
The Canadians also dominated the women’s 3 metre synchronized platform event. Jennifer Abel and Emilie Heymans were the top athletes at the end of the event.
As for other disciplines, Canada was again in the lime light on the Sunday evening. The wrestler Arjan Bhullar also clinched the silver medal that evening. Others who added to the medal tally of the Canadian team were Alice Falaiye (long jumper), Nicole
Forrester (high jumper), who won the gold medals. Silver medal winner was the archer Jay Lyon of Winnipeg.
Canada is still residing on the fourth spot in the overall Commonwealth Games rankings so far. Team Canada concluded the seventh day of the Games with 5 gold medals, 1 silver and 3 bronze medals. Australia is so far dominating the Games with the maximum
number of medals. It is leading all the 71 participating nations with a total of 137 medals. Australia is followed by England with a medal tally of 104 medals. The host nation is occupying the third position with 73 medals.
Arjan Bhullar, the winner of the gold medal, defeated his rival from the host nation, Joginder Kumar, in the 120 kg wrestling event. In the post event interview, the wrestler said “I have been training for eight years and I have seen this over and over in
my mind”. The gold medallist went on to say, “I saw this match over and over in my head. I knew it would be down to me and India.”
This event was cheered for the most at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex. The reason was that Arjan Bhullar is the son of the former professional wrestling star, Avtar Bhullar, who belonged to India but migrated to Canada from the Indian village of Bhullar.
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