Jenneke jiggles, narrowly misses out on medal
Michelle Jenneke delighted fans with her trademark jiggle before producing a brilliant run in the 100m hurdles final at the Commonwealth Games.
The Aussie youngster, who said she wasn't going to be dancing on the Gold Coast, pulled out her 'Jenneke jiggle' anyway, looking relaxed as ever.
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She then exploded out of the blocks and challenged the favourites for the medals, finishing in 13.07.
Jenneke finished fourth, with Oluwatobiloba Amusan of Nigeria taking gold in a time of 12.68.
Fellow Aussie Brainna Beahan was fifth, with the minor medals going to Jamaicans Danielle Williams and Yanique Thompson.
Jenneke says she will take a break from hurdling after admitting the politics of the past 18 months have left her exhausted.
"I got way too close to the hurdles and had to pull up and lost a lot of momentum there," Jenneke said.
"It's bittersweet. I'm pretty disappointed with the time and my position."
And she revealed she had struggled for motivation to compete on the Gold Coast, conceding to being "pretty exhausted from it all".
That included a high load of competitions along with the controversy that followed her Rio Olympics campaign where she bombed out in the heats and was accused of being unfit and lacking focus by team coach Craig Hilliard.
"I really just need a break," she said.
"Two weeks ago my motivation to run out here was pretty low.
"I had to pull it together in the last two weeks just because the past 18 months have been quite draining.
"Not really the training side of it ... it's the other side of the sport that's really been getting to me. All the political stuff."
Jenneke said she would return to hurdling in time for a tilt at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
On Australia's least successful day at the Gold Coast Games so far, Sally Pearson watched Amusan take the gold medal designed for her.
Pearson's injury-enforced absence hit home on Friday night when the Nigerian won in a time 0.40 seconds slower than the Australian's personal best.
The event was meant to be a joyous Games highlight for the host nation and Pearson - instead, the Olympic and world champion sat in the stands, nursing an achilles injury.
Australia harvested just two gold medals on Friday the 13th - the nation's most meagre medal day of the Games.
Shooter Lateisha Scanlan (women's trap) and lawn bowler Aaron Wilson (men's singles) triumphed - the host nation now has 65 golds, 34 more than next-best England.
Scanlan, on her 28th birthday, scraped into the trap final via a sudden-death shoot-off - and then won gold with a Games record, hitting 38 of 50 targets.
Wilson became just the third Australian bowler to win the men's singles gold.
His triumph came just hours after Australia men's fours lawn bowlers were beaten for gold by Scotland.
Also snaring silver on Friday was 20-year-old shooter Sergei Evglevski in the men's 25m rapid fire pistol event.
The son of six-time Commonwealth champion Lalita Yauhleuskaya was eclipsed by Indian 15-year-old Anish Bhanwala.
Australia's 10m platform synchronised team of Domonic Bedggood and Declan Stacey, who first met each other 15 years ago when rival gymnasts, bagged bronze behind two English pairs.
And Bedggood took another bronze later when paired with Matthew Carter in the 3m springboard synchro final.
Fellow Australian divers Georgia Sheehan (silver) and Esther Qin (bronze) collected medals in the 1m springboard.
And compatriot Nina Kennedy took the bronze in the women's pole vault.
There was success in the boxing ring with five fighters progressing to gold medal bouts on Saturday while Australia's Olympic champion women's rugby sevens team started their campaign with two wins to assure a semi-final spot.
with AAP