Olyslagers and Patterson in high jump finals; Diamonds in netball action vs; Chalmers and Pallister headline swimming with O’Callaghan and Stubblety-Cook also in action.
Peter Bol knows he can play it safe and win a medal. But he won’t win gold. Or he might be brave, risk everything, but there might be a chance for gold. He will be brave.
Bol has had a career full of aggressive pursuit of victory, which has twice seen him miss the podium entirely. Her most famous was in Tokyo, when she finished fourth by the smallest margin of just over the width of one of her large diamond earrings, and again in the world indoors.
He regrets not winning a medal, but not because of his tactics.
He will do the same this time in Glasgow. The risk of nothing coming out of the hunt for gold. This might be when he finally wins something in the championship.
His first race in warm weather on Tuesday morning (Tuesday evening AEST) was the opposite. He ran cautiously to stay out of trouble and succeed, which he confidently won in 1:45.86; It was the fastest of all heats.
Semi and final will be different. He won’t be careful.
“You know you’ll never forget this,” Bol said of missing out on medals in Tokyo.
“I mean, even this year I was fourth in the indoor world. So, you know, what do you do? You always try to win. If you run safely, you’re bound to get a medal. If you run bravely, you can be fourth or you can win. And that’s been my strategy for the last few championships. And I don’t know if I’ll change that. I think I’ll still prefer to win that gold. I’ll still work my heart out and try to win. Rather than just try for the medal.”
“I’m in incredible shape so I never shy away from it, I want to win. I want to win the final. I want to get that gold medal.”
“It’s a lovely field, a bunch of 1:42 guys versus the last Commonwealth Games, there was no 1:42 in the field and now there’s about four or five of us who could be 1:42 runners. But at the end of the day, the 800 is a strategy race and I can back myself on the experience side of things.”
Bol was joined by fellow Australians Luke Boyes and Peyton Craig in the semi-finals.
Needing to finish in the top three to advance to the finals, Craig struggled to recover from a poor position in the 150th position but backed his shot to head home. With no room to maneuver he timed it and settled into third place just a few meters from the line.
“I got a little closer to what I wanted to do, but hey, I’m in the semifinals, I know it’s not pretty, but I finished,” he said after running 1:47.17.
“My coach Craig (Mottram) is very good at relaxing and having the ability to get himself out of any situation and I feel like that really helped me today. I wasn’t in a good spot until the end of the bell. I still wasn’t in a great spot with 200 minutes to go, but just by supporting myself and supporting the shot I always had a strong finish.”
Boyes tore a quad muscle just two months ago and had just one run before Glasgow but finished third in 1:47.37.
“I had one race under my belt last week and I came out of it pretty tough, but I needed it. So I think that puts me in a pretty good spot for this championship,” he said, adding that the injury hasn’t changed his view of what he can do here.
“No, I still want to get a medal. That’s it.”
