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Matty Denny has smashed his personal best twice to claim a completely dominant victory in the men’s discus at the Commonwealth Games.
Any of Denny’s six throws in the final would have been good enough to claim the title.
He set a new personal best of 67.24m in the penultimate round, then bettered the mark again a few minutes later with 67.26m with the final throw of the night.
It was a first senior international gold medal for the Queenslander, who was fourth at the Tokyo Olympics and sixth at the previous two world championships.
England’s Lawrence Okoye (64.99m) was second and Traves Smikle, from Jamaica, was third with 64.58m.
Denny became the sixth Australian man to win the Commonwealth discus title and the first since Benn Harradine in Delhi in 2010.
Peerless wheelchair racer Madison de Rozario led an Australian one-two in the women’s T53/54 1500m.
De Rozario controlled the race from the front to win in 3.53.03 ahead of fast-finishing countrywoman Angie Ballard (3.53.30) and Scotland’s Samantha Kingshorn.
The 29-year-old de Rozario has now done the 1500m-marathon double at the 2018 and 2022 Commonwealth Games and the 800m-marathon double at last year’s Tokyo Paralympics.
“You try and look at each race in isolation, you can’t let whatever happens before colour it too much,” she said.
“But to get to retain a title is always a privilege.”
Gold Coast Commonwealth silver medallist Henry Frayne was sixth in a extremely tight men’s long jump final.
Frayne’s best jump of 7.94m came in the penultimate round.
Laquan Nairn from Bahamas (8.08m) edged India’s Murali Sreeshankar for gold on countback, with only 3cm separating the top four finishers.
Australian Chris Mitrevski was ninth with 7.70m.
Rasheed Broadbell, from Jamaica, won the men’s 110m hurdles in 13.08 after fellow Jamaican and reigning Olympic champion Hansle Pargment withdrew due to injury.
Australian Nick Hough was seventh after clattering into the last two barriers.
Cedric Dubler was in second place at the halfway stage of the decathlon behind only Grenada’s Linden Victor.
Fellow Australians Alex Diamond and Daniel Golubovic were fourth and fifth respectively.
Diamond was a late replacement for Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Ash Moloney, who did not make it to Birmingham after aggravating a knee injury at the recent world championships in Birmingham.
