Day 6: Wombats Climb Podium As Lucky Charms Another Gold 

Para swimmer Lakeisha Patterson and the men’s 3×3 wheelchair basketball team have helped continue Australia’s dominance at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow overnight by claiming gold medals.

The women’s 3×3 wheelchair team also tasted success with victory in the bronze medal final while wheelchair racer Mikaela Dingley delivered a gutsy performance to take bronze in the women’s T54 final at the athletics track.

With the contribution of four more medals from Australia’s Para athletes, the nation has extended the lead on the medal tally with 47 golds, five more than the combined total of the next four countries: Canada (14), England (12) Scotland (9) and Nigeria (7).

Aiming for her third career gold medal at her fourth Commonwealth Games, Patterson delivered an outstanding performance to break the 1:03 barrier in the women’s 100m freestyle S9 final.

Widely known as Lucky and stopping the clock in a winning time 1:02.99, she was made to fight all the way to the wall by team-mate Emily Beecroft who took silver in 1:03.56. Their team-mate Victoria Belando Nicholson just missed the podium, finishing fourth in 1:04.73.

Meanwhile, the Australian men successfully defended their gold medal from Birmingham four years ago with a gritty 19-13 victory which triggered jubilant scenes.

The quartet of Eithen Leard, Tomas Klein, Tom O’Niell Thorne and Luke Pople were defeated by England in the qualifying round, but returned to show a steely edge when it mattered most.

Leard added to his growing reputation in the sport by draining 10 points in the final in a clutch performance. He was brilliantly supported by O’Neill Thorne who finished the tournament as Australia’s leader in points, assists and rebounds across their five games.

In the women’s bronze medal match, Paralympians Taishar Ovens, Hannah Dodds, Georgia Munro-Cook and emerging talent Ebony Stephenson bounced back impressively after their gut-wrenching 15-12 semi-final defeat to Scotland.

But with Munro-Cook leading the scoring and rebounding, the Australians resisted a determined Canadian team who pushed all the way to the final siren, holding on for 19-17 victory.

At the track, Mikaela Dingley ensured her Commonwealth Games debut would be one to remember after a highly dramatic 1500m T54 final fought out in wet, challenging conditions.

Dingley finished fourth but was elevated to the bronze medal after Canadian Nandini Sharma was disqualified post-race, after finishing second, for instigating a crash that ended the chances of three competitors, including Australia’s Eliza Ault-Connell.

In other results, Jaydon Page missed the chance to emulate his silver medal winning performance from four years ago, finishing fourth in the men’s 100m T47 final. While Michal Burian placed eighth in the men’s Discus F42-44/61-64 final.