CANADIANS STRIKE GOLD AT DISABLED TRACK CHAMPIONSHIPS

LILLE, France (CP) - Earle Connor of Calgary won his second gold of the competition Friday by taking the men's 100 metres for amputees in a championship record 12.85 seconds. He earlier won 200 metres for amputee athletes and set a new world record of 27.09 seconds in the process.

Earle Connor is having a golden World Championship

"I love this event," said Connor after his 200m win. "The spectators are amazing - we can hear them cheering when we race. I had a good start and was able to come through strong at the finish." Chantal Petitclerc of Montreal and Lisa Franks of Saskatoon added to their gold-medal collection Friday at the world paralympics athletics championships. Petitclerc, who earlier won the women's paraplegic 100 metres and 400 metres, added the 200 metre crown. "I've accomplished the sprint triple crown," said Peticlerc, who won easily in 30.73 seconds.

Franks, who earlier won the women's quadraplegic 100 and 200-metre races, completed her hat trick with a victory in the 400 in one minute 16.04 seconds. Karen March of Mill Bay, B.C., finished seventh. Rick Reelie of Saskatoon won his second bronze of the meet, finishing third in the men's 1,500 in the T52 class. Dean Bergeron finished fourth, just 6-100ths of a second behind Reelie. Saskatchewan's Clayton Gerein had finished second but was disqualified. Kelley Smith had more than his share of bad luck. He was involved in a collision in the 1,500 metres and couldn't start the 5,000 because of problems breathing. Courtney Knight of Burnaby, BC, won silver in the women's discus for visually impaired athletes (category F13) with a throw of 37.22 metres. The Canadian 4x400 m relay team surprised itself with a bronze medal, which had to be confirmed by photo finish after a close race with the French team. The Canadian foursome of Colin Mathieson of Winnepwg, Jason Lachance of Gloucester, Mathieu Blanchette of Levis and Kelly Smith from Vancouver) finished in 3:29.00. Kyle Pettey of Campbellford, Ont., won silver in the cerebral palsy category (F35) discus, with a throw of 37.06. Shane Risto of Mississauga, Ont., placed fourth at 32.45. Canada finished Saturday's competition by winning two medals in the discus competition, to make a total of 31 medals. Monique Hartin of Ontario won gold in the T35 category with a throw of 19.99 m, and Kris Vreind of Edmonton took the silver in T36 with 19.06 m.

MANCHESTER NEWS:
(www.commonwealthgames.com for complete results)

TWO GOLDS FOR DESPATIE, AND A BRONZE TO CLOSE

MANCHESTER (Info News Service) - Peter Waterfield of England captured the Commonwealth Games men's 10m high board gold medal in a thrilling competition on Saturday. He is the first English diver to win gold for 20 years.

Alexandre Despartie could not maintain the amazing pace at the Games

Waterfield, in fifth place after the preliminary round, produced a superb sequence of dives to win the gold medal with 690.30 points. Leon Taylor, also of England, who was in his sick bed all day on Thursday, finished second on 689.82 points, leaving defending champion Alexandre Despatie to collect bronze with 689.79. Despatie looked set to retain his crown and complete the first hat-trick of diving golds in Games history after the morning round. But a poor fourth dive left him struggling to stay in touch with the astonishing pace.

Waterfield, on the other hand, began the session in fifth place. He was fourth after three rounds but timed his challenge to perfection and bounced from third to first with a superb final dive.

The divers exchanged a series of maximum ten-point dives in a competition that had a packed house on its feet with Waterfield becoming the first English diver to win gold in this event since Chris Snode in 1982.

On the womens' side, Blythe Hartley of Calgary won the first silver medal of the 2002 Commonwealth Games and the first medal for Canada in the 1m springboard event. Irina Lashko, a 29-year-old Russian diving for Australia, took the gold with a score of 302.82 pts, taking the lead in the fourth of the five rounds and holding off the challenge of the reigning world champion, Blythe Hartley, who scored 287.04pts. Jane Smith of England rounded out the top three with 256.38 pts. Lashko said: "It feels bloody great. I was pretty sure it was going to be a good fight between me and Blythe."

Blythe Hartley of Calgary

Emilie Heymans finished fifth in that competition, but later showed that she was not finished.

Australia's Irina Lashko picked up her second gold of the Commonwealth Games by claiming the 3m springboard title with 594.51pts. That's when Canada's Emilie Heymans stepped up to finish a very close second coming in at 574.23 pts. to win Canada's second silver of the games, and the third medal overall. England's Jane Smith collected her second bronze with 556.38pts.

HUGHES TAKES WOMEN'S CYCLING TIME TRIAL TITLE

MANCHESTER (Info News Service) - Canada won two medals in the women's time trial final at Rivington Pike on Saturday with Clara Hughes winning gold and Lyne Bessette taking bronze. Pre-event favourite and number one seed, Australia's Anna Millward, won silver in a class field of 20 riders.

Clara Hughes is all smiles wearing her Gold Medal in Manchester (photo: AP - Richard Lewis )

Hughes already has two Olympic cycling bronze medals from the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. She also won a bronze medal in speed skating at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics earlier this year, making her one of only four athletes in history to have won medals at Summer and Winter Games. Hughes' time over the 23.4km course (two laps of 11.7km) was 34 minutes 51.66 seconds, nine seconds faster than Millward (35:00.77). Bessette completed the distance in 35:10.42.

Hughes, the number six seed, set off quickly with the fastest intermediate time, covering the first 12 km in 17:29.52. She maintained that pace on the second lap and crossed the line to huge applause from spectators as she set the fastest provisional time of the 15 riders that had finished.

Bessette, second to last off, was second quickest at the same 12km stage but lost a potential silver medal on the second lap as Millward, the final rider, increased her speed on her second flying lap.

When Millward finally crossed the line opposite Rivington and Blackrod High School, Hughes was confirmed as the Commonwealth champion.

After the medal ceremony Hughes said: "The time trial is always a great race for me, but my coach told me that if I can do well in the pursuit then I can do well in the time trial."

"My strategy was to go as well as I could but if anything I went too fast on my first lap."

GYMNASTICS GOLD FOR CANADA

MANCHESTER (Info News Service) - Kate Richardson of Canada won the gold medal in the women's individual all-around event with an impressive performance at the full capacity G-MEX Centre with a score of 36.750.

A jubilant Richardson who holds the highest-ever Canadian Olympic finish in artistic gymnastics, fought back from back from injury earlier this year to Games victory, she said: "I had back surgery on January 26 earlier this year and then I was in a brace for six weeks, which was horrible. I kept training hard and it went pretty smoothly fortunately - this is my first competition back. It felt so god to be up there again and competing."

Richardson's coach Elena Davidova said: "She made such a great start that I knew she'd be confident for the whole competition. The support of the Canadian people in the crowd was fantastic and a great help."
England's Beth Tweddle took the silver with a score of 36.387. Alana Slater of Australia took the bronze with a score of 36.362.

Kylie Stone of Calgary was part of the Womens' team bronze medal performance.

Canada took the bronze medal in the women's team gymnastics event Saturday, narrowly edged by England for second. The team of Kylie Stone of Calgary, Danielle Hicks of Oshawa, Ont., Heather Purnell of Metcalfe, Ont., Kate Richardson of Coquitlam, BC and Vanessa Meloche of Longueuil, Que., finished with a score of 106.800, one-tenth of a point behind England. Australia won the gold medal with 111.325 points. Canada narrowly missed silver to get third place with a total of 106.800.

SYNCHRONIZED CANADIANS GET GOLD AGAIN

MANCHESTER (Info News Service) - Canada maintains a stranglehold on Commonwealth Games synchronized swimming by adding the gold medal in Saturday's duet competition to the solo gold they won the previous day.

Claire Carver-Dias and Fanny Letourneau totally dominated the duet competition to win the gold medal with 94.417 points. Gayle Adamson and Katie Hooper, England (88.167) finished second leaving the two Australians Naomi Young and Ashleigh Rudder (85.917) to take the bronze medal.

Canada held a comfortable lead after the morning technical session and only a major collapse in the free session would have prevented the Canadians from maintaining their country's 100 per cent record since synchronized swimming was introduced into the Games in 1986.

There was never the slightest hint of trouble as the duo recorded a complete set of marks over nine to complete the formality of a second gold of the Games for Carver-Dias.

She said: "We know all about Canada's great synchro tradition at the Commonwealth Games, of having won every gold medal, and we have pride in that tradition and wanted to maintain it."

"We wanted to achieve our best, and we put in a great routine this morning," she added.