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Monday March 27, 2006

Dominant hosts miss all-time Games record haul by three golds

MIGHTY Australia fell agonisingly short of the Commonwealth Games gold medal record yesterday but the hosts reconfirmed their place as the event's superpower with a huge 84 titles.

Australia's total was just three short of the record they set in Victoria in 1994, and exactly the same as the golds gleaned by England (36), Canada (26) and India (22) combined.

The final day of action saw Natalie Grinham complete a squash treble, their men's field hockey side complete a bruising 3-0 win over Pakistan while Natalie Bates and Matthew Hayman took the cycling road races.

But the unlikely figure of slender Canadian gymnast Alexandra Orlando muscled in on the Australian headline grabbers by joining national heroes Ian Thorpe and Susie O'Neill by capturing six gold medals at the same Games.

Australia's bitter rivals New Zealand won the last gold of the 245-medal Games with a thrilling 60-55 victory in the netball, dethroning the defending champions.

In field hockey, Liam De Young, Luke Doerner and Jamie Dwyer scored the goals that ensured a successful title defence for the Koookaburras who have not lost a match since the sport was introduced to the Games in 1998 at Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia claimed the bronze with a 2-0 win over England.

Nineteen-year-old Toronto student Alexandra Orlando earned a place in the record books by snaring six golds in the rhythmic gymnastics and joined Australian swimming stars Ian Thorpe and Susie O'Neill, as well as compatriot and swimmer Graham Smith, as the only athletes to win six golds at one Games.

In the women's table tennis singles final, Singapore's Zhang Xue Ling sprang a surprise over compatriot Li Jia Wei to win gold while Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei and England's Tracey Hallam were crowned king and queen of the badminton courts.

Chong Wei, the world No. 2, beat compatriot Wong Choong Hann to win the men's competition while Hallam spoiled the Malaysian party by easing past Wong Mew Choo.

Away from the action, a second Games participant was charged with indecent assault at the athletes' village.

This time a 40-year-old Bangladeshi athlete was the one in trouble and he will appear in court on Monday after police confiscated his passport.

Three more Sierra Leone athletes went missing bringing to 14 the number that vanished – two-thirds of their 21-strong squad.

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