Tuesday 29 July 2014

Glasgow 2014 day-by-day guide: Commonwealth Games highlights

Chris Hoy Commonwealth Games
This is your comprehensive day-by-day guide to the main events, big names and best stories at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Here, BBC Sport looks ahead to where and when we might expect some of each day's key moments.
You can access the action across the BBC on television, radio, online, red button, connected TVs, mobiles and tablets.
Scheduled start times are in BST.

Tuesday, 29 July

David Calvert
David Calvert will be attending his 10th Commonwealth Games, having first competed at Edmonton 1978
Day in a sentence: Mountain bikers take to the trails as Britain's leading gymnasts clash.
Gold medals won today: Athletics (men's 110m hurdles, hammer throw and decathlon, women's 400m, 1500m, 10,000m and triple jump), Cycling (men's and women's mountain bike events), Gymnastics (men's and women's artistic team events), Shooting (men's trap, 25m rapid fire pistol and 50m rifle three positions, women's 50m rifle three positions, Queen's Prize), Swimming (men's 50m free, 1500m free, 200m medley, 4x100m medley relay, women's 400m free, 50m back, 4x100m medley relay and Para-sport 200m SM10 medley), Weightlifting (women's 75kg, men's 94kg), Wrestling (men's 57kg, 94kg and 125kg, women's 48kg and 75kg).
Highlights include:
12:45 - Shooting: The shooting events end with the individual Queen's Prize, a full-bore target rifle event unique to the Commonwealth Games: competitors fire at targets across a range of distances in an event supposedly inaugurated by Queen Victoria who, in 1860, offered a £250 purse to the winner of the first such tournament.
Northern Ireland's David Calvert makes his 10th Games appearance, having won four gold and four bronze medals since his debut at the 1978 Edmonton Games.
11:30 - Mountain bike: Canada's Catharine Pendrel is a former world champion and will start among the favourites in the women's cross-country event on the new Cathkin Braes trails, to the south of Glasgow.
Mountain biking returns to the Games having been dropped in Delhi four years ago. Since its debut on the programme in 2002, Canadians have won three of the four available gold medals.
This year, the Western Isles' Kerry MacPhee will race for Scotland in the women's event having transferred from triathlon in a scheme designed to maximise Scottish medal potential, while Kenta Gallagher is one to watch for the hosts in the men's race.
Kristian Thomas
Kristian Thomas is part of the England team which is confident of winning the men's team competition
Gallagher elected to ride for Scotland  despite having the option of competing for England. "I've lived in Scotland all my life and all my friends are Scottish. I don't think they'd approve if I turn up for a Commonwealth Games in Scotland wearing a St George's cross on my back," he explained a couple of years ago.
16:30 - Artistic gymnastics: Both team finals promise to deliver one of the biggest home-nations battles of the Games, particularly a men's event which splits Great Britain - one of the world's leading teams - into England and Scotland.
London 2012 silver medallist Louis Smith, overlooked by GB for this year's European Championships, has nevertheless secured selection to the English team for Glasgow 2014 having mounted a high-profile nine-month comeback. While Smith is a pommel horse specialist, team-mates Kristian Thomas, Sam Oldham, Nile Wilson and Max Whitlock will be England's big hitters on all six apparatus in the team event.
For Scotland, Dan Purvis and Daniel Keatings are the stars of the show: both have won world medals in the past and the former was part of GB's bronze medal-winning team at London 2012. They are joined by Frank Baines, a former European junior all-around champion who represents Scotland's next generation at the age of 19.
In the women's team event, England can call on the considerable world-class experience of Rebecca Downie and Hannah Whelan, alongside exciting younger talents such as Ruby Harrold and Claudia Fragapane. Raer Theaker leads a young Welsh team while India McPeak, who competed in her first World Championships for Ireland last year, is on the Northern Ireland team. Canada and Australia will both field strong women's squads led by Victoria Moors and Lauren Mitchell respectively.
19:00 - Swimming: The last night of swimming action features the two 4x100m medley relays alongside the women's 400m freestyle, which may be another chance for Wales' Jazz Carlin to impress. Australia's Bronte Barratt has been Carlin's closest rival over this distance so far in 2014.
Jazz Carlin
Can Wales' Jazz Carlin add relay gold to her 800m freestyle crown?
The longest men's event on the programme, the 1500m freestyle, is a chance to see 18-year-old Mack Horton , billed as the leading light of Australia's next generation of swimming talent. England's Daniel Fogg is tasked with stopping him, while London 2012 silver medallist Ryan Cochrane will be defending the Commonwealth title he won for Canada at Delhi 2010.
19:30 - Weightlifting: The men's 94kg category pits England's Sonny Webster and Owen Boxall against Scotland's Peter Kirkbride. Kirkbride, 26, competed at London 2012 despite suffering a torn biceps muscle mid-event, while Boxall is the British champion. Faavae Faauliuli, the Samoan who narrowly beat Kirkbride to Commonwealth gold in India four years ago, will be back to defend his title in Glasgow.
The women's 75kg class features England's Mercy Brown, who broke eight British records when she earned her qualification for Glasgow 2014 at the British Student Championships in March. Brown faces tough competition from Canada's top female weightlifter, Marie-Eve Beauchemin-Nadeau, who won silver in the event at Delhi 2010.
Nigeria will be the nation to watch in the weightlifting tournament as a whole - their lifters picked up four gold medals at the Delhi Games and the team's coach has vowed to double that figure  in Glasgow.
Also: Badminton (singles and doubles preliminaries), Boxing (men's quarter-finals), Hockey (09:00 New Zealand men v England, 16:00 Wales men v South Africa, and other group stage matches), Lawn Bowls (preliminary rounds), Netball (09:30 England v Trinidad and Tobago, 17:00 South Africa v Wales, 19:00 Malawi v Scotland, and other group stage matches), Squash (doubles pools), Table Tennis (singles qualifying round).
BBC Coverage details:
06:00-01:00 BBC Radio 5 live
09:00-13:00, 13:45-18:00 & 19:00-22:00 BBC One
09:00-22:00 BBC Three
13:00-13:45, 18:00-19:00 & 22:00-22:30 BBC Two
22:40-23:40 Tonight At The Games, BBC One
23:40-23:55 Sports News, BBC One
BBC Red Button & BBC Red Button HD / Freeview & BT Vision 301 / Sky & Freesat 980 / Virgin Media 990 (Only on air from 19:00)
19:00 - 20:30 Netball: Scotland v Malawi
20:30 - 22:00 Weightlifting - Men's 94kg
BBC Red Button 1 / Freeview & BT Vision 302 / Sky & Freesat 981 / Virgin Media 991
09:20 - 11:00 Netball: England v Trinidad & Tobago
11:00 - 14:00 Gymnastics
14:00 - 17:30 Boxing QFs
17:30 - 18:30 Netball: South Africa v Wales
18:30 - 22:45 Boxing QFs
BBC Red Button 2 / Sky & Freesat 982 / Virgin Media 992
08:50 - 10:50 Men's Hockey: England v New Zealand
10:50 - 12:30 Men's Hockey: Trinidad & Tobago v Malaysia
12:30 - 13:00 Squash replay
13:00 - 14:00 Boxing: Quarter-finals
14:00 - 15:50 Men's Hockey: India v Australia
15:50 - 17:30 Men's Hockey: Wales v South Africa
17:30 - 22:30 Badminton
BBC Red Button 3 / Sky & Freesat 983 / Virgin Media 993
11:00 - 11:55 Weightlifting
11:55 - 14:00 Lawn Bowls
14:00 - 14:50 Shooting: Men's Trap
14:50 - 15:45 Squash
15:45 - 20:45 Lawn Bowls
20:45 - 23:30 Replay: Wrestling finals
BBC Red Button 4 / Sky & Freesat 984 / Virgin Media 994
08:55 - 15:00 Badminton
15:00 - 15:30 Commonwealth Games replay
15:30 - 18:00 Weightlifting - Women's 75kg
18:00 - 21:00 Table Tennis
21:00 - 22:30 Badminton
BBC Red Button 5 / Sky & Freesat 985 / Virgin Media 995
09:25 - 14:30 Table Tennis
14:30 - 15:15 Commonwealth Games replay
15:15 - 16:15 Shooting: 50m Rifle 3 positions men's finals
16:15 - 17:30 Table Tennis
17:30 - 21:00 Squash Doubles preliminaries
See the full day's schedule here

Wednesday, 30 July

Sarah Barrow and Tonia Couch
Sarah Barrow and Tonia Couch are England's leading contenders in the 10m synchro diving
Gold medals won today: 19. Athletics (men's 400m, high jump and long jump, women's 3,000m steeplechase, shot put, javelin and heptathlon), diving (women's 3m synchro and 10m synchro, men's 1m), gymnastics (men's and women's artistic all-around events), weightlifting (women's +75k, men's 105kg), wrestling (men's 61kg and 97kg, women's 53kg, 58kg and 69kg).
Day in a sentence: Hockey hots up and Delhi divers defend their titles.
Highlights include:
09:00 - Hockey: A clash between Scotland's women and England starts the day, and much could potentially ride on the outcome: this is the final group game for both teams, who to finish in the top two of a section which also includes an in-form Australian team. Wales play Malaysia in the following game.
Scotland and England have been kept apart in the men's tournament, where the group stage finishes a day later with the Commonwealth hosts against Australia and England against Canada. Scotland's men will need to get past Australia and India to reach the semi-finals, but Scotland captain Chris Grassick has been drawing inspiration  from the World Cup run of the Costa Rican football team.
10:00 - Diving: The opening final of the 2014 diving programme is the women's 10m platform synchro, closely followed by the women's 3m springboard synchro. Canada's divers lead the world rankings among Commonwealth nations in each discipline, but Australia's Melissa Wu will look to defend her 10m synchro title from Delhi 2010 with new partner Rachel Bugg, who replaces Alex Croak.
Canadian chef de mission Chantal Petitclerc has billed the nation's divers as "the team to beat" in Glasgow  - they feature double 2010 champion Jennifer Abel in the 3m synchro alongside Pamela Ware.
Malaysia's coach, meanwhile, believes his divers can better their Delhi medal total of four  - their best ever - and reach the podium in even greater numbers this year.
Tonia Couch and Sarah Barrow , who finished fourth at Delhi 2010 and fifth at London 2012, are England's (and the home nations') leading contenders in the 10m synchro event, with Rebecca Gallantree and Alicia Blagg challenging in the 3m. Victoria Vincent, the 13-year-old late addition to the England diving team after rules over the Games' lower age limit were clarified, is set to compete in Thursday's 10m individual event.
16:30 - Wrestling: Five gold medals can be won on the second of three days of wrestling at Glasgow 2014, featuring three women's weight categories - 51kg, 59kg and 67kg - alongside two for men, 60kg and 97kg.
Wrestling at Glasgow 2014 is freestyle, one of the two Olympic disciplines (the other being Greco-Roman, which is not being held here). Indian wrestlers won 10 of the 21 available titles at Delhi 2010 and will hope to be similarly dominant in Glasgow. India have reportedly set an ambitious overall target of 125 medals at these Games.
Leon Rattigan, who won bronze in the men's 97kg category in 2010, returns to the English team alongside wife Yana and competes on Wednesday.
19:00 - Athletics: The men's 400m sees Grenada's Kirani James - the Olympic champion - set to face bronze medallist Lalonde Gordon of Trinidad and Tobago. Martyn Rooney races for England.
Also: Badminton (singles and doubles preliminaries), boxing (quarter-finals), hockey (09:00 Scotland women v England, 11:00 Malaysia women v Wales, and other group stage matches), lawn bowls (Para-sport open triples B6/B7/B8 semi-finals), netball (17:00 Scotland v Northern Ireland, 19:00 Barbados v England, and other group stage matches), squash (doubles pools), table tennis (singles and doubles preliminaries).

Thursday, 31 July

Aled Davies
Paralympic and world champion Aled Davies will skipper Wales at the Games
Gold medals won today: 25. Athletics (men's 200m, 800m, 400m hurdles, discus and Para-sport 1500m T54, women's 200m, 400m hurdles, long jump and Para-sport 1500m T54), cycling - road (men's and women's time trials), diving (men's 3m, women's 10m), gymnastics (artistic apparatus - men's floor, pommel horse and rings, women's vault and uneven bars), lawn bowls (Para-sport open triples B6/B7/B8, women's triples), weightlifting (men's +105kg), wrestling (men's 65kg and 86kg, women's 55kg and 63kg).
Day in a sentence: Louis Smith gets back on the horse as the Commonwealth's cyclists tackle the time trials.
Highlights include:
10:00 - Cycling time trials: The Commonwealth's fastest road cyclists hit the time trial circuit  - 40km for men, 30km for women - taking in Glasgow's East End as well as the countryside of East Dunbartonshire and North Lanarkshire.
Sir Bradley Wiggins will be considered favourite for men's time trial gold, with English team-mate Alex Dowsett winning silver in the same event at Delhi 2010. Australia's strong road team includes national time trial champion Michael Hepburn, while defending Commonwealth champion David Millar is included in the Scotland line-up. Svein Tuft, a world silver medallist in 2006, was a late call-up to the Canadian team.
In the women's time trial, New Zealand's Linda Villumsen looks a strong prospect, having won silver in Delhi and medals at world level for each of the past five years, though time trial success depends on how the Glasgow course suits each individual rider.
Northern Ireland's Wendy Houvenaghel, three times a world champion on the track and now back working as a dentist at the age of 39, will be on the time trial start line alongside England's Emma Pooley , who is one of the pre-race favourites and the new British national champion. Scotland will be represented by rising talent Katie Archibald.
15:00 - Artistic gymnastics: Thursday sees the start of gymnastics' individual apparatus finals, the day's highlight being the men's pommel horse, expected to star England's Louis Smith. The 25-year-old won Britain's first individual Olympic gymnastics medal in a century on the pommel horse at Beijing 2008, upgrading that bronze to silver at London 2012. Having initially stepped away from the sport to focus on a TV career after the Games, Smith announced a comeback in late 2013 and is now in the England team for Glasgow.
Team-mate Max Whitlock, the world silver medallist, is likely to form his strongest rival, while Scotland's Dan Keatings has twice won the European pommel horse title. Australia's Prashanth Sellathurai, the Delhi Commonwealth champion and a finalist alongside Whitlock at last year's Worlds, has not been selected.
19:00 - Athletics: Dai Greene defends his 400m hurdles titles on behalf of Wales, with Trinidad and Tobago's world champion Jehue Gordon also set to feature. Greene, 28, defeated Gordon in early July having spent most of the past year on the sidelines following a succession of hernia operations.
Six-time Paralympic champion David Weir leads an eight-strong Para-sport squad within the English athletics team and will compete in Thursday's 1500m T54 with team-mate Will Smith. Shelly Woods, Jade Jones and Lauren Rowles represent England in the women's 1500m T54, alongside Meggan Dawson-Farrell and Samantha Kinghorn for Scotland.
Jamaica look set to dominate the men's 200m with Rasheed Dwyer and Warren Weir in form, though the presence of Anguilla's Zharnel Hughes will be of interest to British spectators: the 18-year-old will be eligible to run for Great Britain at Rio 2016 should he choose to do so and meet the selection criteria. An exciting talent, Hughes hit the radar with a victory over 100m at this year's Jamaican Championships, but will only feature in the 200m in Glasgow.
Nigerian superstar Blessing Okagbare , already a Diamond League champion this year as well as a 2013 world bronze medallist on the track, is a leading contender in the women's 200m. Also a successful long-jump competitor, the 25-year-old has suggested she will prioritise the sprints over her jumping in Glasgow. The Bahamas' Anthonique Strachan could be a challenger, while Jodie Williams is set to feature for England.
Also: Badminton (singles and doubles preliminaries), hockey (09:00 England men v Canada, 14:00 Australia men v Scotland, and other group stage matches plus women's classification matches), netball (classification matches), squash (women's doubles quarter-finals), table tennis (quarter-finals).

Friday, 1 August

Charlotte Carey
Table tennis star Charlotte Carey represented Wales in the 2010 Commonwealth Games as a 14-year-old
Gold medals won today: 20. Athletics (men's 3,000m steeplechase, 10,000m and pole vault, women's 800m, 100m hurdles, high jump and discus), diving (men's 3m synchro and 10m synchro, women's 1m), gymnastics (artistic apparatus - men's vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar, women's beam and floor), lawn bowls (men's singles and fours, women's pairs), table tennis (men's doubles and women's singles).
Day in a sentence: Sally Pearson and Singapore seek success.
Highlights include:
14:00 - Artistic gymnastics: The last day of gymnastics concludes with more apparatus finals, including the women's floor event, where two Canadians will hope to take a title won by England's Imogen Cairns in Delhi four years ago.
Ellie Black reached the world final for Canada in Antwerp last year, but team-mate Victoria Moors could shine with a unique "double double" - a double twisting double layout move now named after her in the sport's scoring system. Australia's Lauren Mitchell won silver in Delhi and could win another medal this year while, in the absence of Cairns, England will look to the likes of Hannah Whelan and Claudia Fragapane.
16:00 - Table tennis: Defending champion Feng Tianwei, of Singapore, is the favourite to win Friday's women's singles final. However, Singapore team officials have cautioned that India, Australia and Canada have all strengthened their squads in the intervening four years.
Among the home nations' hopes is Tin-Tin Ho, the youngest member of the England table tennis squad at 15 years of age, who was named after her sport (TT equates to "table tennis") by her ping pong-obsessed father, Charles. Along similar lines, her brother is named Ping. The Welsh squad for the women's singles includes 20-year-old twins Angharad and Megan Phillips.
On the men's side, a strong England squad includes Liam Pitchford and Paul Drinkhall alongside the experienced Andrew Baggaley, who won two gold medals in Manchester on the Commonwealth debut of table tennis in 2002. Drinkhall's wife, Joanna, will play in the women's tournament - they won mixed doubles bronze together in Delhi.
17:45 - Lawn bowls: The men's singles final caps the bowls tournament at Glasgow 2014 - an event won by Wales in 2010 courtesy of Rob Weale, who returns to the Commonwealth Games this year as part of a squad in which ages range from the mid-20s to early 70s.
Sam Tolchard , who topped his group in Delhi only to miss out in the semi-finals and lose the bronze medal play-off to Northern Ireland's Gary Kelly, is back in the England team for Glasgow. Kelly, meanwhile, has been replaced for 2014 by Martin McHugh.
19:00 - Athletics: Australian Olympic champion Sally Pearson says she will make a late decision on pairing up the 100m sprint with the hurdles at Glasgow 2014, but Friday's 100m hurdles is her speciality: the 27-year-old won gold in this race in both London and Delhi.
Fitness will be Pearson's issue. She has been nursing a sore hamstring this season and has yet to hit her best form, but she told  Australia's ABC: "I know I have that competitive drive still in me to become a better athlete, a faster athlete and become Commonwealth Games champion."
Few in the Commonwealth are capable of matching Pearson even on a bad day. One of her closest rivals is England's Tiffany Porter, whose best time of the year - 12.71 seconds - is within range of Pearson's 12.59, set back in February.
In the absence of Mo Farah, Kenya look set for success in the men's 10,000m, with Canada's Cameron Levins the fastest in the world this year from any other Commonwealth nation.
Also: Badminton (singles and doubles quarter-finals), boxing (semi-finals), hockey (women's semi-finals), netball (classification matches), squash (women's doubles semi-finals).

Saturday, 2 August

Tom Daley
England's Tom Daley will fight to defend his 2010 Commonwealth title in the individual 10m platform event
Gold medals won today: 33. Athletics (men's 4x100m, 4x400m, 1500m, triple jump and javelin, women's 4x100m, 4x400m, 5000m and pole vault), boxing (13 finals), diving (women's 3m, men's 10m), hockey (women's final), squash (women's doubles), table tennis (men's singles, women's doubles and mixed doubles), Para-sport powerlifting (four disciplines).
Day in a sentence: Powerlifting and powerful punches ahead of Daley's dives and a night of relay racing.
Highlights include:
10:00 - Powerlifting: The entire Para-sport event of powerlifting takes place on Saturday, with four gold medals available. A formula which multiplies a competitor's bench press by a figure representing their bodyweight is used to decide the champions.
Natalie Blake and Ali Jawad will compete for England, while Afghanistan war veteran Micky Yule  - injured by an improvised explosive device while serving in 2010 - represents Scotland. Yule, 35, has had more than 40 operations on his long path to recovery. He said: "It can be a bit daunting going through this rollercoaster with all the different operations. Having something like the Commonwealth Games to look forward to helps me get on with my life."
14:00 - Boxing: All 13 boxing titles are decided in two marathon Saturday sessions, including 10 men's events and - for the first time - three women's events. Only two of 10 finals went ahead without British participation in 2010 - resulting in gold medals for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - so expect some success here.
A strong Welsh squad for the men's events includes European champion Andrew Selby and defending Commonwealth bantamweight champion Sean McGoldrick. England's male squad features middleweight world bronze medallist Antony Fowler and two European bronze medallists in Charlie Edwards (flyweight) and Joe Joyce (super-heavyweight). Scottish fighters include Delhi lightweight silver medallist Josh Taylor and Lewis Benson, who came through a selection box-off for his welterweight place.
Northern Ireland's Paddy Barnes is one of his team's biggest medal hopes having won the light-flyweight title in 2010, alongside two Olympic bronze medals and a European gold. "Anything else than gold would be a massive disappointment," the Belfast 27-year-old said in early July.  India's Devendro Singh should be among Barnes' challengers - Barnes beat the 22-year-old in the London 2012 quarter-finals.
Paddy Barnes
Can Paddy Barnes retain his Commonwealth title for Northern Ireland?
Pakistan's nine-man team for the Commonwealth Games have been training at British boxing star Amir Khan's facilities ahead of their contests. Their team, appropriately, includes another boxer named Amir Khan, fighting at light-welterweight. Australia's squad includes heavyweight Jai Opetaia, a cousin of Everton and Australia footballer Tim Cahill.
18:00 - Diving: Saturday's individual 10m platform contest is Tom Daley's signature event, and one he won at Delhi 2010 alongside the synchro gold. Then, he was the world champion with a home Olympic dream ahead of him; now he is the Olympic bronze medallist pushing on to Rio 2016.
In the absence of the sport's dominant Chinese competitors, England's Daley - now 20 - is the favourite. He must watch out for Australia's Matthew Mitcham, New Zealand's Li Feng Yang (who switched nationality when injury brought an early end to his career in China) and Canada's Maxim Bouchard. Bouchard, 23, suffered serious internal injuries when a platform collapsed underneath him  at an event four years ago, but has recovered to make his first Commonwealth Games appearance.
Canada's Pamela Ware and Jennifer Abel lead the rankings in the day's other diving event, the women's 3m springboard, with Australia's Anabelle Smith and England's Hannah Starling also contenders. Grace Reid, who finished sixth aged just 14  in Delhi, competes for Scotland.
19:00 - Athletics: The final night of Commonwealth Games athletics includes the men's and women's 4x100m and 4x400m relays. England won the men's 4x100m gold in Delhi four years ago - Mark Lewis-Francis is the sole member of that team to reach Glasgow and he could be joined by Harry Aikines-Aryeetey and Richard Kilty, members of GB's bronze medal-winning team at this year's inaugural World Relays event.
Jason Smyth heads up the Northern Ireland 4x100m team, but Jamaica will start as favourites ahead of Trinidad and Tobago. This is set to be Usain Bolt's night at the Glasgow Games.
Jamaica are again the world-leading women's 100m relay quartet this year, with Veronica Campbell-Brown and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce among the athletes eligible to form their Glasgow team. England, though, won in Delhi with both Trinidad and Tobago and Nigeria on form at the World Relays in May. Wales will also be on the start line.
The Bahamas will have been buoyed by the way they ran the United States close for men's 4x400m gold at the World Relays, with Australia the defending Commonwealth champions ahead of Kenya in the men's race. India seem unlikely to keep the women's 4x400m title they won on home soil, leaving England in the reckoning along with Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Nigeria. Scottish teams are entered in both races.
Also: Badminton (semi-finals and bronze medal play-offs), netball (semi-finals).

Sunday, 3 August

Linda Clement celebrates scoring against Korea at Glasgow Green
Scotland women's hockey team aim to beat their seventh-place finish at the 2010 Games in Delhi
Gold medals won today: 11. Badminton (men's singles and doubles, women's singles and doubles, mixed doubles), cycling (men's and women's road races), hockey (men's final), netball, squash (men's doubles and mixed doubles).
Day in a sentence: The last remaining sports reach their climax ahead of the closing ceremony.
Highlights include:
08:30 - Cycling road race: If you go shopping in Glasgow on Sunday, be prepared for your day out to involve cyclists: the shops of Argyle Street and Buchanan Street will form the backdrop for parts of the men's and women's road races, which take on a 14km circuit  starting at Glasgow Green.
Mark Cavendish had been a leading contender for men's road race gold, but a crash on the opening day of the Tour de France has ruled the Manxman out. That could leave Scotland's David Millar in the hunt for gold, given that he finished close behind Cavendish in last year's British Championships, held on a similar Glasgow course. Despite Cavendish's absence, the Isle of Man will still have British national road race champion in contention, while Team Sky's Geraint Thomas will sport his Welsh colours.
Many riders are unavailable for selection as a result of pro cycling commitments; for example, Australia will be lacking Cadel Evans, Richie Porte and Mick Rogers, but the likes of Mark Renshaw will still ride in Glasgow despite participating in the Tour de France.
England's Lizzie Armitstead won the women's equivalent of that race and will have riders such as Laura Trott riding in support of her at the Commonwealth Games. Scotland's Claire Thomas , meanwhile, broke her hip in June when her bike slipped on spilled diesel, but is determined to reach the Glasgow road race start line.
10:00 - Badminton: All five individual badminton events come to a close with the men's singles and doubles followed by the women's equivalent and, lastly, the mixed doubles.
England's Rajiv Ouseph lost to Lee Chong Wei in the Delhi 2010 men's singles final, but the Malaysian superstar is missing through injury this year. Will that open the door for Ouseph? He may have to get past India's Parupalli Kashyap and another Malaysian, Chong Wei Feng, both of whom are ahead in the world rankings. India's Saina Nehwal, a gold medallist on home soil at Delhi 2010, remains the women's singles favourite in Glasgow.
Mixed doubles could be the scene of a high-stakes clash between the home nations. English couple Chris and Gabby Adcock are the top-ranked pair in the event, but Scotland's Robert Blair and Imogen Bankier will be hot on their heels for the host nation.
12:30 - Hockey: The men's gold medal should, on paper, belong to Australia - the team ranked first in the world and winners of June's Hockey World Cup. However, highly regarded coach Ric Charlesworth has decided to step down before the Commonwealth Games with his team on top, and Australia's opponents will have to hope that has an impact on their form.
India's men have something to prove. Having lost to Australia in the 2010 Commonwealth final in front of a home crowd, the Indian team went to London 2012 but lost all five of their pool matches, finishing last in the tournament. New Zealand and England, who reached the World Cup semi-finals last month, will also have designs on getting to the final.
13:00 - Netball: Australia should, again, be a fixture in the netball final having won five of the past six world titles. Yet at Delhi 2010, an otherwise-unbeaten Australian team were upset 66-64 by New Zealand in the final.
Going by the world rankings, New Zealand may again reach the final in 2014 but Delhi bronze medallists England will want to get in the way, despite the absence of captain Pamela Cookey. Outsiders for medals on the final day will be Jamaica and Malawi, fourth and fifth respectively four years ago, a result that equalled the best world or Commonwealth performance in Malawi's history.

No comments: