The world’s fastest man received rapturous cheers and applause at Scotland‘s national stadium at the end of another glittering day for the home nations.
Glasgow has clearly dismissed reports that Usain Bolt described the city’s Commonwealth Games as “a bit s***”, affording him the warmest of Scottish welcomes as he led Jamaica into tomorrow’s final of the 4×100 metres relay.
Bolt took to the track in tonight’s qualifying heat to the strain’s of Runrig’s Loch Lomond.
He said: “It was wonderful. It was just like the London Olympics.”
Bolt has denied the comments attributed to him by a Times journalist.
“I can’t believe she actually said that. You know me, first of all I would never use that word if I was going to say that, but for me, I love competing,” he said.
“I’m here because of the fans and because I want to be at the Commonwealths. I am enjoying it, it’s been good and people have been so nice to me so I’d never say something like that.
“It’s great, for me, everything has been good, just the weather, it’s too cold for me. The fans have been wonderful.”
Scot Lynsey Sharp was also roared to the line by a partisan Hampden crowd, winning Commonwealth silver in the 800 metres.
The 24-year-old’s achievement is made all the more remarkable by the fact that an unspecified illness had not only put her podium hopes in jeopardy, but even the chance to compete in the final.
“This is my everything,” she told BBC Sport. “This year has been obstacle after obstacle.
“There was no way I was going to go through everything I have been through not to get a medal tonight.”
Meanwhile, a near-perfect last dive earned England’s Tom Daley and James Denny Commonwealth Games silver – missing out on gold by a minute margin – after just a week’s preparation on Friday night.
Daley said: “It was one of those last-minute decisions that we made to do it.
“We’re pretty happy with the way that we dived. If we’d been told that we would get a silver medal and do the dive that we did at the end, we’d have been like ‘yeah, okay, whatever’.”
The home nations continued their success elsewhere today as Scotland got the better of England in a lawn bowls showdown.
Pairs champions Alex Marshall and Paul Foster teamed up with David Peacock and Neil Speirs in the men’s fours final at Glasgow’s Kelvingrove, where they triumphed 16-8 to clinch gold for the host country.
However, there was golden joy for England in Edinburgh where the diving is taking place at the Royal Commonwealth Pool as Jack Laugher and Chris Mears won the men’s synchronised three-metre springboard final.
It was the second gold for 19-year-old Laugher after his success in the one-metre springboard individual on Wednesday. He also won silver in the three-metres individual event on Thursday.
Scottish gymnast Dan Purvis also won gold today, claiming victory in the men’s parallel bars.
The 23-year-old, who had already won team silver and rings bronze, upgraded to gold on the final day of competition after being the last gymnast to perform on the apparatus.
England’s Nicola Adams is one fight away from making more women’s boxing history after cruising into the final of the flyweight competition.
Adams will take on Northern Ireland’s Michaela Walsh at the 10,000-capacity Hydro Arena on Saturday – a venue twice the size as the one in which she claimed Olympic glory at London 2012.
Adams said: ”It’s going to be exciting boxing in front of such a big crowd but I know what it’s like and I will be taking that experience into the ring with me.
”The first time round it was all new to me but now I’m a lot more experienced, and I’m prepared for it.”
Walsh realised her long-held dream of a gold-medal clash with Adams after winning against India’s Pinki Jangra.
Meanwhile, it earlier emerged that Sierra Leone cyclist Moses Sesay, 32, was admitted to a Glasgow hospital last week after feeling unwell and doctors tested him for various conditions, including Ebola – which is blamed for 729 deaths in an outbreak in four west African countries.
But Sesay, whose homeland has declared a public health emergency, was given the all-clear and released from hospital in time to compete in the men’s individual time trial at the Games yesterday.
Confusion surrounded one of his team-mates, Mohamed Tholley, who had been expected to compete in the time trial event in Glasgow on Thursday but failed to turn up, a report in the Telegraph newspaper said.
However, Jackie Brock-Doyle, a spokeswoman for Glasgow 2014, said o rganisers had spoken to the chef de mission, who confirmed they were not concerned about the athlete’s whereabouts.
Source Article from https://uk.news.yahoo.com/sierra-leone-cyclist-ebola-scare-003038195.html
Bolt weathers storm for relay final
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