Commonwealth Games: Kenyan swimmers in deep waters, lifters weighed down

IN GOLD COAST

Saturday was an encouraging day for Kenya in the pool at the Commonwealth Games here as Eunice Mbugua put up a good fight but lost her fifth round match to bid goodbye to the lawn bowls competition.

In boxing's 56kg round of 16 match last night, Kenya’s huge medal hope Benson Gicharu suffered a knockdown in the first round and couldn’t outlast Englishman Peter McGrail in this bantamweight clash that was stopped by the referee in the second round after Gicharu suffered a cut.

“It’s unfortunate he lost. He suffered a cut above the eye and could not continue,” said Kenya’s head of delegation here Barnabas Korir.

In the morning swimming session, Steven Maina won Heat Two of the 100 metres freestyle at the Optus Aquatic Centre, clocking 53.53 seconds which was, however, not fast enough to catapult him into the next phase.

With the top 16 progressing, Maina’s time placed him 38th in the field of 58 swimmers with all those advancing having clocked sub 50-second times.

Emily Muteti, though, made it through to the women’s 50 metres butterfly semi-final by finishing fifth in the third heat in 28.46.

Madeline Groves of Australia won the heat in 25.81 with the semi-final programmed for 8.44pm local time (1.44pm Kenyan time) Saturday.

Kenya’s weightlifting campaign at the Carrara Sports Arena continued to disappoint with Webstar Lukose and Winnie Okoth failing to make impact in the men’s 77-kilogramme and women’s 63-kilogramme competitions, respectively.

Lukose lifted 282kgs (127kg snatch, 155kg clean-and-jerk) to finish 10th in the competition won by India’s Satish Kumar Sivalingam (317kg) with silver going to England’s Jack Oliver (312kg) and Australia’s Francois Etoundi (305) settling for bronze.

Okoth wound up 11th in her competition after lifting 66 in the snatch, where she faulted twice, and 87 in the clean-and-jerk after having faulted once and lifted 81 on her third attempt.

The competition was won by Maude Charron of Canada (220kg) with England’s Zoe Smith (207) taking silver and South Africa’s Mona Pretorius (206) bronze.

NIMJI BITES THE BULLET

Khaaliqa Nimji’s brave fight in squash was brought to a painful end when she lost 3-0 in the semi-finals of the singles plate tournament to Mihiliya Methsarani of Sri Lanka.

Nimji struggled in the first set, losing 6-11, but fought gallantly in the second which she lost 10-12.

Methasarani then battled for the third, winning 13-11 in the competition that lasted 17 minutes at the Oxenford studios.

In the bowls, Mbugua needed to win her fifth game to fight for a place in the quarter-finals but her match against Mataio was timed out as the Cook Island player led 19-18, having trailed Mbugua most of the match.

“The match was allotted two hours and 15 minutes and the hooter went just when I was challenging,” Mbugua, who won two games and lost three at these Games, said.

“I’m playing better and I needed to win this one match but, unfortunately, we were timed out."

“But this was good exposure and I’m sure given the support, I can do better and compete at the Champion of Champions tournament here in Australia in November,” she added.

Kenya’s Saturday early results:

Weightlifting:

Webstar Lukose 10th in men’s 77kg final (127kg snatch, 155kg clean-and-jerk, total: 282kg); Winnie Okoth 11th in women’s 63kg final (66kg snatch, 87kg clean-and-jerk, total: 153kg);

Bowling:

Women’s singles Section C, Round 5: Eunice Mbugua 18 Nooroa Mataio (Cook Island) 19;

Swimming:

Women’s 50m butterfly, Heat 3: Emily Muteti fifth in 28.46 seconds, qualifies for semis; Men’s 100m freestyle, heat 4: Issa Mohammed (did not start); Men’s 100m freestyle, heat 2: Steven Maina wins in 53.53, but eliminated;

Squash:

Women’s Plate semi-finals: Khaaliqa Nimji (Kenya) lost to Mihiliya Methsarani (Sri Lanka) 3-0 (11-6, 12-10, 13-11);

Expected:

Boxing: Men’s 56kg round of 16: Benson Gicharu vs Peter McGrail (England)