Gold rush for England

England's athletes decked the City of Manchester Stadium with gold last night in a stunning finale of six Commonwealth Games triumphs.

Local boy Darren Campbell anchored the 100metres relay team to a hair's-breadth victory over Jamaica to bring the capacity crowd to fever pitch after Ashia Hansen had won the triple jump with her last attempt.

But the biggest shock came in the 1500m when the little-known Mike East claimed victory. That made it an English double at the distance, with Kelly Holmes having taken the women's event.

Steve Backley was back to his best to win the javelin and Daniel Caines capped a memorable night by holding off Wales in the 4x400m relay. After sterling work by Jared Deacon, Sean Baldock and Chris Rawlinson, Caines came home in 3min 0.4sec, one hundredth of a second ahead of the surging Matt Elias.

Salford-born Campbell, who took bronze in Sunday's 200m, finished in an apparent dead-heat with Jamaica's Asafa Powell after Jason Gardener, Marlon Devonish and Allyn Condon set up his dash to glory. Both were clocked at 38.62 sec but Campbell was awarded victory on the dip.

Hansen appeared to be heading for silver in the triple jump, even though she twice broke the Games record in the opening rounds, when Cameroon's Francoise Mbango took a dramatic last-round lead with yet another Games record of 14.82m.

But the 30-year-old Hansen responded magnificently to become the only home athlete to defend the individual title she won in Malaysia four years ago. No surprise was bigger than East overtaking Kenya's hot favourite Williams Chirchir to take the men's race.

The 24-year-old from Portsmouth won in 3min 37.35sec. Javelin hero Backley stepped up for a fifth gold, taking England's track and field tally to 11. In the pool, England's Zoe Baker shared top billing with swimming superstar Ian Thorpe.

Baker took gold in the women's 50m breaststroke, while Thorpe won his third gold medal in two days in the 200m freestyle to stay on course for a magnificent seven.