BLOG: Dehli's games have turned into a success!

With the games reaching the halfway point and the cycling nearly over, I'm pleased to say that it seems to have been a marked success

With the games reaching the halfway point and the cycling nearly over i’m pleased to say that it seems to have been a marked success.

I honestly don’t know how they’ve managed to pull it off but India has gotten away with it. They averted a near disaster and have hosted what has been a pretty phenomenal games so far.

The Aussies have pretty much cleaned house in the track cycling, taking home 11 out of 13 gold medals. The only gold medals they didn’t win were the Women’s Individual Pursuit, which was taken by New Zealander Alison Shanks and the Men’s Kierin, which was taken initially by Azizul Awang who was then controversially stripped of his title and the gold was awarded to fellow Malaysian Josiah Ng.

There have been a few impressive multi-medal winners with female cycling star Anna Mears (AUS) taking three gold medals. One of which was a tough battle in the Women’s Individual Sprint with Welshwoman Becky James in which Mears admitted she had to work very hard to beat her and James “pushed her all the way to the finish line.”

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Shane Perkins has been the forerunner for the Australian men, winning an impressive three gold medals- three out of three for all the races he competed in.

In terms of the home islands, the standout star of these games has to be aspiring Welsh star Becky James. At only 18 and competing in her first open age competition; the junior champion has won herself two commonwealth medals. One bronze in the 500m time trial and one silver in the women’s sprint.

In terms of track cycling, the only other home nation teams to make it to the podium were Wendy Houvenaghel (NIR) who took silver in the Women’s 3000m Individual Pursuit and David Daniell (ENG) who took silver after being moved up from bronze after Awang’s relegation.

The Northern Irish team took bronze behind a New Zealand silver and an Australian gold in the controversial Men’s Team Sprint event after Wales was disqualified for two false starts.

Welsh Rider Sam Harrison said: “It was definitely a wrong decision.”

“We only decided that we were going to field a team two days ago.”

In the road race that was contested on Sunday; the Australians once more proved their superiority in the cycling field. With Rochelle Gibson and Allan Davis both taking gold for the Aussies.

Australia’s Chloe Hosking took bronze, while England’s Lizzie Armitstead claimed silver, after the race she said: “It was a messy final, we used up our lead too early”

“I struggled in the heat, I was just breathing hot air. It was like riding in a hairdryer.”

In the men’s race Mark Cavendish from the Isle of Wight finished 7th after being billed as one of the favourites.

He said: “We didn’t have a team as strong as the Australians, in our team we have an electrician and a man from the water board.”

New Zealander Hayden Roulston took silver, while Scotsman David Millar took bronze. He said: “I did m best but it wasn’t really my best performance.”

“I want to go and do the time trial but I wanted to give this my best shot.”

If Australia take all the gold medals on offer on Wednesday’s time trial, they will have failed to succeed in only 2 out of all of the events in the cycling, both road and track.

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