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Dan Greaves was born during the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane. Today, 22 years later he is a Commonwealth champion after winning England’s first athletics gold of these Games.
The para-sport F42/44 discus was billed as a head-to-head between Greaves and Wales’ Aled Davies, the Paralympic champion. Greaves’s third-round effort of 59.21metres ensured he went one better than his silver at London 2012.
Greaves (above), who has the congenital foot condition talipes (club foot), said: “I was born during the Commonwealth Games in 1982, my parents were avidly watching during my mother’s labour so winning a Commonwealth title is right up there with any of my achievements.
“This is definitely on a par with London, the crowd were phenomenal. I wanted to give them a great performance — they pushed me all the way. It’s been a bit of a ding-dong all season with Aled but, as soon as I threw 59m, I thought I had a good chance.”
It was a good morning for Team England on the track too with three representatives qualifying for tomorrow’s 1,500m final: Hannah England, Laura Weightman and Jemma Simpson.
England will also have three representatives in tomorrow’s high jump final with Martyn Bernard, Tom Parsons and Chris Baker all comfortably achieving the automatic qualification standard of 2.20metres.
There were strong performances from England duo Martyn Rooney and Michael Bingham in the 400m. Bingham finished second in his heat behind overwhelming favourite Kirani James, who appeared to jog to the easiest wins in a time of 45.52sec, while Rooney won his run with a confident display.
