Gemili whets appetite for medals with silver sprint
SPRINTER Adam Gemili hopes his first senior medal can prove the springboard for future success and a crack at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
England’s Gemili claimed the silver medal in the men’s 100m final at Hampden Park last night after clocking 10.10 seconds, behind only Jamaica’s Kemar Bailey-Cole, who took gold in 10 seconds flat.
It capped another successful day for England in Glasgow, after Nick Matthew headed a host of squash medalists and 18-year-old Sophie Taylor’s gold proved the best of several swimming prizes.
While former Dagenham and Redbridge footballer Gemili, 20, who has focused more on the 200m this season, insists his finishing position was all-important, he believes there is scope to improve his times.
“Medals are what counts and this is a stepping stone now for the European Championships in a couple of weeks, the World Championships and then eventually Rio,” said Gemili.
“It was not about the time, it was about the position and I did it so I’m over the moon. The times will come and hopefully I will have a decent career in terms of the time I run.”
England’s Asha Philip ran a personal best of 11.18 to finish fourth in the women’s 100m final as Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare stormed home in a Commonwealth Games record time of 10.85.
Taylor took England’s gold medal tally in the pool to eight with a powerful finish to win the women’s 100m breaststroke final. A similarly impressive display came from Aimee Willmott in the women’s 200m butterfly final as she claimed silver.
England’s Adam Peaty, who won gold in the 100m breaststroke, walked away with silver in the 50m equivalent behind South Africa’s Cameron van der Burgh, Adam Barrett claimed bronze in the men’s 100m butterfly, while Jazz Carlin eased to 800m freestyle glory to become the first Welsh woman to win Commonwealth Games gold in the pool for 40 years.
London 2012 gold medallist Nicola Adams, the first woman to win an Olympic boxing title, safely negotiated her path to the quarter-finals of the flyweight competition by defeating Nigeria’s Oluwatoyin Oladeji.
Scotland, meanwhile, set a new national record for Commonwealth Games gold medals, surpassing the 11 won in Melbourne in 2006.