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

Birmingham 2022 board member Ama Agbeze is proud of how her city has “totally embraced” the Commonwealth Games, and now believes it is ready to stage an Olympics in the future.

Over 1.4 million tickets have been sold, comfortably breaking the UK Games attendance record set at Glasgow in 2014, while the 160,000 tickets sold for the women’s T20 cricket represents a world record for a women’s cricket competition.

It has been striking how even the competitions outside of the sports mainstream – such as lawn bowls and 3×3 basketball – have been played in front of packed crowds at the venues in Birmingham and across the West Midlands.

Here’s some reaction from Scotland’s B2/B3 mixed pairs gold medal winners. Skip Robert Barr, and his director Sarah Jane Ewing, who finished fourth four years ago gave their thoughts after the match.

“To win six out of six, you’re always thinking the wheels might come off the bogey.” said Barr, “So that was added pressure.

“The fact our own pairs [men’s and women’s] already won the gold medals, that set the standard as well. It’s been a long four-and-a-half years, so I’m absolutely delighted.”

Ewing added: “It was like a home games for us. Every bowl was getting cheered on.

“The Gold Coast was difficult with the finish we had and obviously we had limited family and friends over there, so it was brilliant to perform in front of them.”

England’s Delicious Orie is hoping a good luck message from former sparring partner and “inspiration” Anthony Joshua will boost his bid for Commonwealth Games gold.

Super-heavyweight Orie secured a medal in his home city on Thursday night with an impressive display against experienced Trinidadian Nigel Paul, a 2021 World Championships bronze medallist.

Orie, one of eight English boxers to guarantee themselves a medal at Birmingham, faces New Zealand’s Leuila Mau’u in his semi-final on Saturday.

“If Anthony Joshua sees this I’d say ‘please give me a message’,” said Orie, who was born in Russia before moving to Birmingham with his parents when he was a young child.

“He’s a great inspiration and I’ve told him this in person when I used to be sparring with him in camps. If it wasn’t for him I probably wouldn’t be here because he made me believe that it was possible.

“I just want to carry on that message to any young kid that it is very much possible to achieve these things if you put your mind to it.”

Miller on making history, as quoted by the BBC: “A year ago I never dreamed of being here. I got a phone call and nearly fell off my chair to be honest. Here we are - where are we going to go from here?

“It’s all there to be tried. Everyone can try any sport at all. Bowls is easier for older people - but any sport. Walking football, rugby, you name it. Get out there and exercise, play games, compete. It’s brilliant whatever age you are.”

History was made at the Commonweath Games today as George Miller became the oldest gold medallist in history as the 75-year-old helped Scotland defeat Wales in the final of the B2/B3 mixed pairs bowls.

The victory was a first for Scotland in the event but history was secured either way as Wales had Gordon Llewellyn, also 75, competing for gold in the same final.

Miller is a director for visually impaired bowler Melanie Innes and formed part of the teem alongside Robert Barr and Sarah Jane Ewing that defeated Wales 16-9 in today’s final.

He takes the two-day record from comptriot Rosemary Lenton after the 72-year-old became the oldest gold medal winner in the lawn bowls on Wednesday.

Laura Muir is eyeing an elusive Commonwealth Games medal after reaching Sunday’s 1500m 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.

“This is the last one. If I can get not just one but two it would be very special,” she said. “It’s going to be hard, the Commonwealth in these distances is really strong, but it’s an amazing opportunity to give it my best. I would hate to be sitting at home watching the final thinking I could be part of it.”

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.

The action resumed at 12.45pm and it is not expected that the delays to the morning session will have any impact on the evening schedule, which is due to start at 5pm.

Jack Laugher and Anthony Harding turned their attention to the future after their partnership kicked off with a dominant gold in the 3m springboard synchro. Paris 2024, anyone?

“I’ve been doing this for a long time and having someone new on the scene, raring to go, I think it’s really good and I think the synchro partnership is obviously great and we’ve done some amazing performances this year and I just can’t wait for the future,” Laugher told the BBC.

Harding added: “It means everything but this is only the start. This is only our second international. A pretty good score but a PB in the Worlds so I’m hoping we can do better things.”

Jack Laugher revealed he “couldn’t sleep” due to the excitement of his 1m springboard gold the previous night at the Commonwealth Games.

He told the BBC: “I had a really bad night’s sleep last night so I’m not feeling myself today. To say that I had a couple of hours sleep and then to go out there and perform some of the hardest dives in the world alongside a great syncro partner was obviously pretty good.

“I just couldn’t sleep. I ate really late last night and I think obviously the excitement and the buzz around doing so well on the 1m made it difficult to get to sleep and you get in that cycle of ‘I need to sleep because I’m up early in the morning’. Hopefully I’ll be able to sleep better tonight for the 3m tomorrow.”

Jack Laugher, reacting to his and Anthony Harding’s dominant victory in the 3m synchro final to the BBC: “Obviously two golds is amazing. I think what me and Tony wanted to take from this was that we wanted to get another good performance under our belt. Certainly Tony achieved that. I’ve still got some things to improve on.”

Harding: “This is my second international in like two or three years. The 3m men’s in Great Britain is so hard, it’s so tough to get in the big stage and I’ve worked so hard.

“I’ve had to be patient, I’ve had to wait for it, really. It’s thanks to Jack for seeing me in training, seeing how good I can be and trusting in me and believing in me.”