Aussies tighten grip on Games

Australia tightened their Commonwealth Games grip yesterday as organisers battled to save their blue-riband athletics competition which attracted criticism as well as just a trickle of spectators.

On a bumper day of 27 gold medals to be won, Australia’s swimmers claimed five of eight titles in the pool while their cyclists pedalled to four golds.

Hosts India, desperate for their athletes to help save the Games’ rapidly crumbling reputation, were hanging on to the tails of Australia by winning three shooting golds as well as a first weightlifting title.

But it was the sight of an eerily-empty 60,000 Jawaharlal Nehru stadium that gave embattled organisers yet another headache as the Games lurched from crisis to crisis.

Over 1,000 workers toiled through the night to fix the track and in-field areas at the stadium that were damaged during Sunday’s spectacular opening ceremony.

“There was some damage to the athletics track and the in-field was in a very poor condition, and there was some general cleaning up to be done,” admitted Commonwealth Games Federation chief Mike Fennell.

“But the workers responded to this overnight and it was all done. It was checked this morning by the delegate for the IAAF and he has informed us that it is all systems go, so we are very pleased to report that.”

When action got underway on the track, only a few thousand spectators bothered to turn up to watch 100m heats missing the likes of Jamaican sprint kings Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell.

Australia shrugged off the mounting problems to dominate in the pool where they now have clinched 10 gold and 27 in total by the halfway stage with England their closest challengers on three gold in an overall haul of 12.

Alicia Coutts showed her blistering form by winning a second gold in a closely-fought 100m freestyle to add to her 200m individual medley title.

Leisel Jones won a third successive 200m breaststroke with Sarah Katsoulis and Tessa Wallace completing an Australian 1-2-3.

Australia also collected the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay and men’s 4x200 free while highly-rated teenager Emily Seebohm grabbed the 100m backstroke.

South Africa’s Cameron Van Der Burgh lowered the Commonwealth Games 100m breaststroke best for gold while Jason Dunford won gold in the men’s 50m butterfly final giving Kenya an unexpected first win in the pool.

But India were making their mark by staying second in the medals table.

Renu Bala retained her 58kg women’s weightlifting title while the hosts claimed three shooting golds to take their gold total on the range to five.

World record holder Gagan Narang edged Beijing Olympics gold medallist Abhinav Bindra in the 10m air rifle singles event with Anisa Syyed winning the women’s 25m pistol while Omkar Singh claimed the men’s 50m pistol.

In track and field, Uganda’s Moses Kipsiro held his nerve to claim the first athletics gold medal of the Commonweath Games yesterday.

Kipsiro won the men’s 5000m, holding off a last lap charge from former Kenyan world champion Eliud Kipchoge.

Kipchoge, the fastest man over the distance this year, was perfectly placed in second at the bell and took the lead briefly with 300m to go.

But the Ugandan fought back as they came to the final bend neck and neck, ducking over the line in 13 minutes 31.25 seconds.

Another Kenyan, Mark Kiptoo, took the bronze.