Commonwealth Games 2022 LIVE: Laura Muir storms to 1500m gold after England win women’s hockey title

A euphoric Javier Bello sank to his knees in the sand while twin Joaquin reflected on past moments of despair as the English brothers moved to within one win of guaranteeing a Commonwealth Games medal.

Joaquin noted the quarter-final stage of major events represented something of a banana skin for the Madrid-born siblings, who emigrated with their beach volleyball-obsessed family to the UK aged 11.

More heartache might have been in store after the Gambia pairing of Sainey Jawo and Mbye Babou Jarra forced a decider, but the Bellos dug deep to secure an exhilarating 21-16 20-22 15-12 win.

Supported by their team manager mother Barbara and coached by their father Luis, with younger brother Enrique a training partner, the 22-year-old Bellos recognised their triumph was not theirs alone.

England beat New Zealand in a shoot-out to stay on course for a first-ever women’s hockey Commonwealth Games Gold in Birmingham.

Isabelle Petter and Hannah Martin scored in the shoot-out as goalkeeper Maddie Hinch refused to be beaten with a series of brilliant saves.

The two sides could not be separated in 60 minutes of intense hockey, playing out a goalless draw just like they had done in the bronze-medal match in Australia four years ago.

On that occasion New Zealand won the shoot-out to progress to the gold medal match, and the Black Sticks also got the better of England in the World Cup last month with a 3-1 victory.

Geva Mentor thought she’d seen it all in a two-decade international netball career, butshe admits the best could be yet to come.

Mentor made her Roses debut at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, won bronzes in Melbourne and Delhi and was part of the famous gold medal winning team on the Gold Coast in 2018.

However, the 37-year-old - who will earn her 159th cap in Saturday’s semi-finals - claims nothing would top a win in Birmingham this weekend.

Mentor played a starring role as England beat world champions New Zealand by ten points in their last group game to secure a final four meeting with world number ones Australia, who were stunned by Jamaica‘s Sunshine Girls.

Sleepy Leamington Spa seems a rather perfect place for a septuagenarian showdown for sporting history.

It was here on the manicured bowling greens of Victoria Park, that Scotland’s George Miller and his junior, Wales’s Gordon Llewellyn, both 75, made their bids to become the oldest Commonwealth Games champions in history.

And, after two tactical hours, it was Miller who took over from fellow Scot Rosemary Lenton, 72, who had only claimed the record for her para women’s pairs gold 48 hours earlier.

“I think Rosemary is more pleased than I am,” joked Miller, who is the eyes for partially sighted team-mate Melanie Innes who, along with Robert Barr and his director Sarah Jane Ewing, beat Wales 16-9.

“When someone told me I was going to be the oldest competitor and I wondered what that meant, now I’m starting to find out, everyone wants to talk to me all of a sudden.

Sarah Glenn admitted she would have conflicting feelings if England walked away from the Commonwealth Games with a bronze or silver medal.

After topping their group with a 100 per cent winning record, England need only beat semi-final opponents India to guarantee silver and go into the gold-medal match against Australia or New Zealand.

Defeat against India would come with the consolation of vying for bronze against the losers of the other semi, but cricketers are generally unaccustomed to celebrating just a place on the podium.

Adam Gemili has one ambition in mind – rediscovering the smile that was his trademark.

It was that cheeky grin that endeared him to so many when he came out of nowhere to qualify for the London Olympics as a teenager in the same year he committed to athletics for good after playing football professionally.

A decade on, Gemili is a veteran of the athletics scene and is in the middle of the toughest year of his career.

England women’s hockey team have reached the Commonwealth Games final after victory on penalties over New Zealand.

“They were incredible,” Maddie Hinch said of the home support, speaking to the BBC. “It’s hard to describe the difference these guys make for us. In those really tight games, they give you that extra energy in your legs, and the extra stretch for me to make a save! We have to believe. We our the ones with the home crowd. We have to use that to our advantage [in the final].”

Austalia currently lead India 1-0 in the second semi-final.

Matty Lee and injured Noah Williams win Commonwealth gold in synchro 10m platform:

Laura Muir knows that she has to conserve every ounce of energy if she is to complete her set of major international medals and break her Commonwealth duck.

The 29-year-old from Kinross is attempting an audacious double at Birmingham 2022, competing in the 800m and 1500m.

Having already secured her place in Saturday’s 800m final, where she will take on England’s Olympic and world silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson, Muir backed that up by clinching a spot in the final of her preferred event on Sunday.

The top five from each heat went through, with Muir doing what she needed and no more as she came home in fifth.

She explained: “I went to the front at the start to slow it down a wee bit and got away with it for a while but then I knew they were going to come round at one point. When they came, I thought latch on, look at five and do as minimal as possible. I’ve done that and saved the legs for tomorrow.”

Those 4 1/2 somersaults were executed to perfection, earning a final score of 84.36 – the only dive they didn’t pull off to near-perfection was round four, when Williams suffered that ankle injury jumping off the board.