Congratulations to our medal-winning elite athletes competing in Birmingham!
It’s day seven of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games for Deakin’s elite-athlete students. With six athletes yet to compete and seven still competing, there’s some exciting moments ahead.
Since last Friday, we’ve been able to cheer on several Deakin elite athletes, every one of them making themselves, their country and Deakin proud.
On Tuesday, Kate McDonald won a stunning Gold in the Women’s Balance Beam final after an exceptional performance. She also took out Silver in the Women’s Artistic Gymnastic Team Final on Sunday. ‘I definitely was not expecting a score like that. And then I looked at my score and I was shocked that I was in first place,’ she said.
After finishing seventh in the uneven bars, Kate said: ‘I just I had nothing to lose, I was like, “I’m just going to enjoy myself”.’ And that she did!
Congratulations on winning Commonwealth gold, Kate!
Emily Whitehead was also part of the Women’s Artistic Gymnastic Team who took out Silver. Emily also won the Bronze medal for Tuesday’s Women’s Floor Exercise Final. Congratulations on your dual medals, Emily – a sensational outcome made more satisfying after a difficult lead-up to the Games.
‘It’s been a pretty rough Games, so just to even hit that routine was pretty emotional for me,’ she said. ‘To end up like that is pretty special.’
Marena Whittle was part of the Women’s 3X3 Basketball side that took out Bronze. Congratulations to Marena on this hard-fought and tightly contested match – the team won 15–13 after being down 10–6 in the dying minutes of the match.
Marena led the offensive charge with just three minutes to go, scoring nine points to level the game. A late foul saw Australia go to the line to win. Congratulations Marena, and the entire team, on an outstanding performance!
Other notable performances include:
- Alyssa Polites in the 10km Track Cycling Scratch Race final.
- Bowen Gough qualified fourth in the Men’s 200m Butterfly heats and finished fourth in the final.
- Kirsty Harris performed well in the Women’s Light Fly Round of 16.
- Thiruben S/O Thana Rajan, representing Singapore in Athletics, competed in the Men’s 400m, with the 4 x 400m Relay heats to come on Friday 5 August.
Tune in to follow these events and athletes in coming days:
- Current students Jo Weston, Kate Maloney and Liz Watson will play Netball today against Jamaica at 6pm tonight, while student Shimona Nelson will represent Jamaica.
- Jo Harten will continue her run at a medal with England’s Netball team, taking on New Zealand on Friday 5 August at 5am.
- Alumni Johan Durst and the Kookaburras defeated South Africa in the Hockey early this morning and will play Pakistan early on Friday 5 August.
- Alumni Henry Frayne has qualified for the Men’s Long Jump final, to be held in the early hours of Friday 5 August.
Just getting started:
- Starting today, we have student Matthew Ramsden competing in the Men’s 1500m Round 1 (Thursday 4 August, 8.20pm).
- Abby Caldwell will kick off her challenge for the Women’s 1500m Round 1 (Friday 5 August, between 7pm and 11.15pm).
- Make sure you catch Brooke Buschkuehl, one of our favourite alumnis, who will kick off her challenge for the Women’s Long Jump (Friday 5 August, between 7pm and 11.15pm).
- Rhydian Cowley, another alumni we have previously seen around campus, will compete in the Men’s 10,000m Walk final (Sunday 7 August between 7pm and 10.15pm).
- Natalie Rule is competing in the Women’s 5000m final (early hours of Monday 8 August).
Best of luck to all our elite athletes – we’re cheering you from home! The 2022 Commonwealth Games are televised live and free exclusively on Seven and 7plus.
*Some photographs by Getty Images.