Matthew, David retain squash titles

Matthew, David retain squash titles

Nick Matthew lead an English sweep in the men's squash at the Commonwealth Games on Monday as Nicol David joined Malaysia's gold medal run by winning the women's event.

England's gold medalist Nick Matthew (C), silver medalist James Willstrop (L) and bronze medalist Peter Barker pose on the podium after winning the squash men's singles during the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland on July 28, 2014

Matthew became the first squash player to win the men's title in successive Commonwealth Games by beating compatriot James Willstrop 11-9, 8-11, 11-5, 6-11, 11-5 at Scotstoun Sports Campus.

"It's down to my physio, she deserves the medal. I've been a physio's nightmare in the last five weeks. And it's just incredible to be here," said Matthew, who underwent knee surgery in June.

England won all three medals in the men's singles after Peter Barker beat India's Saurav Ghosal earlier on Monday.

David crushed English world champion Laura Massaro 12-10, 11-2, 11-5 in a one-sided women's final which lasted just 44 minutes to retain her title.

"It is a great win -- probably even more special being the Commonwealth Games gold medal," said world number one David.

"To actually win it for the second time round is such an amazing feat. It's such a high being at the Commonwealth Games. It's the pinnacle of any squash multi-sport games to be winning this gold."

Malaysia later secured a third successive Commonwealth Games gold medal in the mixed teams badminton with a 3-1 win over England in Glasgow.

In weightlifting, Marie Fegue won the women's 69kg weightlifting category to hand Cameroon its first Commonwealth Games gold medal since 2002.

"A hard year of work has paid off by winning the gold. That was my only goal," said Fegue, after totalling 234kg from a 102kg snatch and 132kg in the clean and jerk.

Nigerian Itohan Ebireguesele claimed silver with 222kg (100+122) to go one better than her bronze four years ago as Canada's Marie-Josee Ares-Pilon won bronze with a total of 214kg (99+115).

- 12th gold for the hosts -

In bowls, South Africa defeated Northern Ireland 19-10 to take the men's triples gold and Scotland's Alex Marshall and Paul Foster were too good for Malaysia in the men's pairs final winning 20-3.

It was a 12th gold medal for the hosts, topping Scotland's previous record tally of 11 won at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games.

India won a seventh gold medal of the games through Jitu Rai in the men's 50m pistol at Carnoustie on Scotland's east coast, while England's Dan Greaves topped the para-sport discus competition at Hampden Park.

Star turn on the first full day of action in the famed football arena was Olympic champion Kirani James of Grenada as he progressed smoothly to the semi-finals of the men's 400m, winning his heat in 45.52 seconds.

But the top performance of the morning session belonged to Canadian decathlete Damian Warner, who produced a blistering 10.29sec in the opening 100m of the two-day 10-discipline event.

The Games record and personal best gave Warner, the reigning world bronze medallist, a massive 1,025pts to kick off his campaign.

The evening session at Hampden Park sees the semi-finals and finals in both the men and women's 100m.

Over in the pool Australia's Cameron McEvoy took first blood in the men's 50m freestyle heats ahead of Aussie rival James Magnussen.

McEvoy was beaten to gold in the 100m freestyle on Sunday night, but qualified for Monday evening's semi-finals fastest in a time of 22:04sec.

McEvoy already has four medals from the meet in Glasgow as he also took silver in the 200m freestyle and was part of the Aussie team that struck gold in the 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle relays.

Attention turns to the women's 100m freestyle on Monday night as world champion Cate Campbell of Australia, her sister Bronte, and England's Fran Halsall look set to battle it out for the medals.

The Campbells went fastest in Sunday's semi-finals, but Halsall has already claimed two golds in Glasgow in the 50m freestyle and butterfly.

- No record for Gault -

In shooting, England's Michael Gault failed in his bid to become the all-time most-decorated Commonwealth Games competitor as he missed out on qualification for the final of the men's 50m pistol won by India's Rai.

Gault on Saturday tied the all-time record of 18 with a medal in the 10m air pistol.

Olympic champion Nicola Adams of England begins her bid to become one of the first women to win a Commonwealth Games boxing gold medal.

Fighting in the flyweight division, the 31-year-old is favourite after she became the first women's Olympic boxing champion at London in 2012.

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