Commonwealth Games: Steve Lewis pips England team-mate Luke Cutts to pole vault title
Last Updated: 02/08/14 1:08pm
Steve Lewis beat fellow Englishman Luke Cutts to the pole vault title in a fiercely-competed Commonwealth final on Friday evening.
Both men recorded best jumps of 5.55m and after neither were able to clear 5.60m a jump off was required.
After failures on an additional fourth attempt, the bar was dropped back down to 5.55m and, having seen Cutts fall short, Lewis managed to secure gold - the perfect response to losing lottery funding at the end of last season.
It was third time lucky for Lewis in his pursuit of Commonwealth gold having bagged bronze in 2006 and silver in Delhi four years ago.
It's been a rocky start to my season, but I've put really good preparation in and tonight showed I was ready for a jump-off.
Steve Lewis
"That feels amazing. It's been a rocky start to my season, but I've put really good preparation in and tonight showed I was ready for a jump-off," he said.
"The end of 2012 was really tough for me with a bunch of family things that happened, and 2013 I was running on nothing and emotionally just drained.
"This year I've settled down a bit, got a new set-up in America, got a base where I can build off and I'm just so happy I've pulled this off and I can look forward to Rio now."
Elsewhere, England's Isobel Pooley won silver in the women's high jump behind Eleanor Patterson. The 18-year-old Australian cleared 1.94m to take the gold with a personal best of 1.92m from Pooley seeing her fall just short.
There was another medal for England in the women's discus. Jade Lally secured the bronze behind Australia's Dani Samuels and Seema Punia of India.
Scotland's Lynsey Sharp gave the home crowd reason to cheer as she produced a fast finish to grab a surprise silver in the women's 800m behind dominant Kenyan Eunice Jepkoech Sum.
Sharp won the European title in 2012 but had only just managed to scrape into the Commonwealth final, but the fervent support at Hampden Park willed her to an emotional place on the podium.
England's Tiffany Porter came off second best in her battle with Sally Pearson in the women's 100m hurdles, the Australian taking the gold medal in a time of 12.67s.
The heats of the men's 4x100m relay was dominated by the appearance of multiple Olympic champion and double world record holder Usain Bolt, who anchored Jamaica into the final with ease. England's men's and women's team both qualified for the finals.
The 4x400m relays saw England's men and women comfortably qualify for Saturday's finals with Christine Ohuruogu anchoring the women to victory. A national record means Scotland's men will also line up in the final but their women narrowly missed out on a fastest loser place having crossed the line in fourth.
In one of the least surprising results of the night, Kenya recorded a 1-2-3 in the men's 3000m steeplecase with Jonathan Ndiku sprinting to victory in the closing stages ahead of Jairus Birech and Ezekiel Kemboi Cheboi.
