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

Jack Laugher collected his second gold medal of these Commonwealth Games as he and England teammate Anthony Harding dominated the synchronised 3m springboard final.

Laugher and Harding were leading after the opening two mandatory dives and then motored into the distance with their final four dives, set at a much higher degree of difficulty than the rest. Malaysia’s Gabriel Gilbert Daim and Muhammad Syafiq Bin Puteh won silver as Australia’s Samuel Fricker and Shixin Li – who finished second to Laugher’s gold in the 1m springboard final on Thursday – won bronze.

The 27-year-old Laugher and 22-year-old Harding are at different stages of their career, and while Laugher was pleased to collect the seventh Commonwealth title of his impressive career, he was just as delighted to see his junior teammate earn a first global title, having won silver together at the World Championships in Budapest earlier this year where they pushed China hard.

Laura Muir is eyeing an elusive Commonwealth Games medal after reaching her second final.

The Scot finished fifth in her 1500m heat on Friday morning to reach Sunday’s final at the Alexander Stadium.

She ran four minutes 14.11 seconds as she paced herself in the morning session in Birmingham, having also reached Saturday’s 800m final.

A Commonwealth Games medal is the only one missing from Muir’s collection after she finished 11th in the 1500m – having been clipped – in 2014 and skipped the Gold Coast four years ago to focus on her vet exams.

Action in the morning session at the wrestling at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games was interrupted for almost two hours after a speaker cover fell from the roof at the Coventry Arena.

The incident occurred half an hour into the session which began at 10.30am on Friday morning, a spokesperson for Birmingham 2022 told the PA news agency.

No one was injured by the cover, but play was stopped and spectators were moved out of the viewing area for safety purposes while staff conducted checks on the other speakers fixed into the roof.

England made experience count as they sunk reigning world champions New Zealand 54-44 to book a Commonwealth Gamesnetball semi-final against Australia.

England were never behind as they fashioned a one-point half-time advantage before pulling away to lead by six at end of the third quarter and staged another final quarter surge to secure a 10-point cushion.

The result, in front of a raucous home crowd at the NEC Arena, means Jess Thirlby’s team will face a rematch of the memorable 2018 final against the Australians, who suffered a shock 57-55 defeat to Jamaica earlier on Thursday in their final group stage game.

Boxer Duken Tutakitoa-Williams took just five minutes to seal his place in Commonwealth Games history by winning Niue’s first-ever medal.

With a population of around 1,600, it was perhaps no surprise that Niue – a coral atoll in the Pacific Ocean 375 miles to the east of Tonga – had never made its way onto the medal table at five previous Games.

But heavyweight Tutakitoa-Williams ended that wait by stopping his Cook Islands opponent Michael Schuster in the second round of their quarter-final contest at Birmingham 2022.

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.

England’s Marfa Ekimova is still going strong in the rhythmic gymnastics and she tops the table after the hoop, ball and clubs with a score of 85.200.

Her 28.350 in the clubs extended her lead over Australia’s Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva to 0.700 points.

England take the first set 21-16! Good work from the Bello brothers who weathered a tricky spell which saw Gambia draw level. From 10-10 though they managed to squeeze in front and claimed th set thanks to some errors from their opponents.

England’s Javier and Joaquin Bello lost to New Zealand’s Sam O’Dea & Brad Fuller in their final group match meaning they have a trickier quarter-final against dangerous Gambian duo Sainey Jawo and Mbye Babou Jarra.

The Gambians won African Games gold in 2019 but the Bello’s start quick with Javier serving down three aces in a row as England go 4-0 up.

A battle of wills develops and Gambia fight back to 9-9 in the first game.

England are out!

Liam Pitchford and Tin-Tin Ho are beaten in the deciding game of their quarter-final 11-9 by India’s Achanta Sharath Kamal and Akula Sreeja and won’t be playing for a medal

Team England’s other pair Charlotte Bardsley and Tom Jarvis lost 3-0 in their last eight match to Australia duo Nicholas Lum and Minhyung Jee as well.