2022 Commonwealth Games: Summer McIntosh secures her sixth medal on Day 6
Team Canada had lots to celebrate on Day 6 of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.
Summer McIntosh stands as Canada’s most decorated athlete of the Games after winning two more medals on Wednesday, there was an all-Canadian showdown for gold in judo, and Sarah Mitton came through with a clutch final throw in the women’s shot put.
Team Canada at the 2022 Commonwealth Games
Here is quick look back at what happened on an 11 medal day:
Swimming
On the last day of competition in the swimming pool, Canada won five more medals to bring the total earned by the swimming team to 20.
Kylie Masse won her eighth career Commonwealth Games medal as she claimed gold in the 50m backstroke while setting a Commonwealth Games record of 27.31 seconds.
One of the most anticipated showdowns of the Games came in the women’s 400m freestyle where reigning world silver medallist Summer McIntosh was facing reigning Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus of Australia, who had chosen not to compete at the recent world championships. Titmus jumped out to the early lead and held it all the way to the finish, touching the wall in a Commonwealth Games record time of 3:58.06. McIntosh came in for the silver, 1.26 seconds back (3:59.32), going faster than she had at the world championships to break her own Canadian record. Ella Jansen placed seventh in the final.
About 20 minutes later, McIntosh was back on the pool deck for the final of the women’s 4x100m medley relay. She swam the freestyle anchor leg, following Masse (backstroke), Sophie Angus (breaststroke), and Maggie Mac Neil (butterfly) into the water. Canada won the silver medal in 3:56.59, finishing 2.15 seconds behind Australia. That gave Masse a ninth career Commonwealth Games medal. She and Mac Neil will head home from Birmingham with five medals apiece, while McIntosh has six to lead all Canadian athletes at this point.
Joshua Liendo won bronze in the 50m freestyle for his fourth medal of the Games. He finished in 22.02 seconds to stand on the podium behind two English swimmers, gold medallist Benjamin Proud (21.36) and silver medallist Lewis Burras (21.68).
Para swimmer Nicholas Bennett won gold in the men’s 200m freestyle S14 in a Commonwealth Games record time of 1:54.97.
Finlay Knox finished fourth in the men’s 200m individual medley final. Eric Brown placed sixth in the men’s 1500m freestyle final.
Judo
There was an all-Canadian final in the men’s -100kg event as Shady El Nahas took on Kyle Reyes. It was El Nahas who came away as the gold medallist, winning by waza-ari in golden score time, while Reyes will go home with the silver. El Nahas joins older brother Mohab as a Commonwealth Games medallist after Mohab won -81kg bronze on Tuesday.
Canada also claimed gold in the men’s +100kg event as Marc Deschenes defeated Kody Andrews of New Zealand in a final match that lasted just 58 seconds. In less than a minute, Deschenes recorded two waza-ari to seal the victory.
Coralie Godbout hoped to add to the medal haul in the women’s -78kg event but lost by ippon in a bronze medal bout to Rachel Tytler of Scotland.
Athletics
Sarah Mitton won the gold medal in the women’s shot put to give Canada its first podium of the athletics competition. She did it on her sixth and final throw, recording a distance of 19.03 metres after improving on each of her throws. That last effort put Mitton five centimetres ahead of silver medallist Danniel Thomas-Dodd of Jamaica as she jumped from third to first.
About five minutes later, Zachary Gingras won the bronze in the para athletics T37/38 100m final.
Squash
Hollie Naughton became the first Canadian woman to ever win a squash medal at the Commonwealth Games. She’ll be coming home with silver after dropping the women’s singles final 3-1 (11-7, 11-5, 12-14, 11-5) to England’s Georgina Kennedy. Ranked 20th in the PSA World Rankings, Naughton had advanced to the final after upsetting top seed Joelle King of New Zealand in Tuesday’s semifinal.
Boxing
Several Canadian boxers won their quarterfinal bouts on Wednesday, ensuring they will go home with hardware — they just don’t know what colour yet. Reigning world champion Tammara Thibeault is moving on to the semis in the women’s 75kg weight class after the referee stopped the contest against Hepseba Angel of the Cayman Islands.
Priyanka Dillon defeated Christine Ongare of Kenya 4-1 in the women’s 48kg event, Wyatt Sanford got by Joshua Tukamuhebwa 4-1 in the men’s 63.5kg event, and Keoma-Ali Al-Ahmadieh defeated Keevin Allicock of Guyana 4-1 in the men’s 57kg event. Those semifinals will all take place on Saturday.
Weightlifting
There were a pair of near podium finishes for Canadian weightlifters on Wednesday. After Pierre-Alexandre Bessette placed fourth in the men’s 109kg event, Emma Friesen finished fourth in the women’s +87kg event, missing the podium by just one kilo. Quinn Everett placed seventh in the men’s +109kg event.
Commonwealth Games Medal Table after Day 6:
| Team | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | 46 | 38 | 39 | 123 |
| England | 39 | 37 | 29 | 105 |
| Canada | 16 | 20 | 21 | 57 |
| New Zealand | 16 | 10 | 10 | 36 |
| Scotland | 7 | 8 | 17 | 32 |
The 2022 Commonwealth Games will run through August 8 and feature 268 Canadian athletes competing in 18 sports and five para sports. You can stream the action live on CBC Gem, cbcsports.ca and the CBC Sports app for iOS and Android devices. Some competition will also be featured on CBC TV broadcasts on the weekends.
