Bowler Katherine Rednall grabbed Suffolk’s second bronze medal of the Commonwealth Games in the triples event today, writes Paul Eddison.
A day which had started with tears for Stowmarket’s Rednall, Ellen Falkner and Sian Honnor, was transformed in the evening as the women’s triples team put semi-final defeat to Australia behind them on their way to a 20-12 success over Canada.
That looked unlikely at one point when the Canadians had come from 10-3 down to lead 12-10, but Rednall and co collected themselves and stopped the rot before powering to victory.
And the message when the Canadians were on the charge had been a simple yet effective one.
Rednall said: “We were saying to ourselves that we just had to keep calm. They played well and their skip played exceptionally well, she played a number of big drives and got great results. It was a case for us of sticking in there and hope and have faith that things would go our way.
“It will take a little while for that to sink in because we’re still buzzing from the match. It was quite a strange game, we got off to an early lead and they came back at us and all of a sudden we were really fighting for it.”
Rednall’s bronze follows para powerlifter Zoe Newson’s third-place finish earlier in the week, making it two bronzes for Suffolk.
Elsewhere Ipswich’s Hannah Martin and the England women’s hockey team fell in the semi-finals, beaten in a shoot-out by New Zealand.
Goalless at full time, the match went to penalty shuffles and while Martin scored for England, she was the only one as they went down 2-1.
“I’m absolutely devastated but couldn’t be prouder of our team. The performance was absolutely spot on, the chances just didn’t fall for us,” she said.
“I feel like we dominated the game, we dominated possession, we played our game and played our hockey and I’m so proud of the girls and the performance they put out.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t get the result but we’ll come back fighting for that bronze medal.”
In the athletics Bawdsey heptathlete Katy Sealy, here representing Belize, lies 11th after day one, having struggled in the final event, the 200m.
She said: “I am dead after that 200m, that was really tough. I had a good day until that! Got a hurdles PB and a season’s best in the high jump so to come out and do that is great.
“I can’t ask for much more than that. That 200m hurt me, but there is more left and I will come out tomorrow.”
- npower is the Official Partner of Team England and is giving our athletes the power of support by recording a brand new version of their anthem, Jerusalem. To listen to the track visit npower.com/teamengland
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