• Commonwealth Games - Day Six

Hazel crowns England's gold rush

There was gold for Hannah Miley © Getty Images

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Louise Hazel produced a devastating final-day heptathlon performance to snatch a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, one of five for England on Saturday.

After beginning the day in third place in the standings, Hazel stormed to the top of the leaderboard with a prodigious leap of 6.44m in the long jump. She followed that up with a lifetime best of 44.42m in the javelin, meaning that she had a nine-second advantage over Jessica Zelinka heading into the 800m.

The finish was more nervy than she would have liked - Hazel finished five seconds behind Zelinka - but she followed in Denise Lewis' footsteps by seizing gold, with compatriot Grace Clement in third.

Earlier, Scotland's Hannah Miley set a Games record as she swam to victory in the 400 metres individual medley. European champion Miley confirmed her status as a strong British medal hope for the 2012 Olympics by clocking 4.48:83, with England's Keri-Anne Payne in third place.

"I was hoping it would be a little faster for the amount of pain I went through, but it was definitely all about the race," Miley told the BBC. "Being able to end the year on such a high after the Europeans is great, and I can't wait to start afresh for next year."

Also in the pool, there was late heartbreak for Scotland's Michael Jamieson in the men's 200m breaststroke as he was forced into second by Australia's Brenton Rickard, who won in a Commonwealth Games record time of 2:10.89.

The English women's 4x100m relay team finished in second, with the men grabbing third. On the final day of swimming action, there were three individiual bronzes for England - Rob Welbourne in the men's 100m freestyle, Daniel Fogg in the men's 1500m freestyle and Ellen Gandy in the women's 200m butterfly.

Meanwhile, England's Jo Jackson won gold in the women's 20km walk early on Saturday morning, denying Australia's Tallent family a domestic double.

Jackson, 25, sped around the Delhi city course in 1:34.22, around two and a half minutes ahead of Australia's Claire Tallent. Jared Tallent, Claire's husband, bettered his spouse with a gold medal walk in the men's race.

Grace Njue of Kenya claimed bronze with another Englishwoman Lisa Kehler in fourth.

In archery, a tearful Nicky Hunt spoke of her elation after producing a faultless display to snatch her second gold of the games. England's Hunt hit 12 perfect tens from 15 arrows to beat Canadian Doris Mary Jones 146-145 in the individual compound final.

"I can't put into words how much this means," she said. "I fear I'm going to wake up and find it was all a dream. Two gold medals is more than I could ever have hoped for. I'm sure it will sink in over the next few days but at the moment it just doesn't feel real."

England's hat-trick hero James Tindall hunts down New Zealand's Andrew Hayward © Getty Images

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In the men's competition Duncan Busby led an English one-two - ahead of Chris White - by clinching individual compound archery gold, having already triumphed in the compound team competition.

More gold for England in the shooting, as Anita North triumphed in the women's singles trap, ahead of Scotland's Shona Marshall, who took silver. There was another Scottish silver when Peter Kirkbride powered his way to a weightlifting medal in the men's 94kg class.

Greg Rutherford came off second best in his long jump battle with Australia's Fabrice Lapierre, sealing silver with a leap of 8.22m. Chris Tomlinson, who was clearly suffering with the heel injury sustained during Friday's qualifying, was unable to make any impression.

"I was cramping all over my body, feeling absolutely terrible," Rutherford said. "I'm gutted I didn't win but I'm so pleased with another medal. The way I was jumping, I felt like well over 8.30 was possible. It's been four years since I last won a medal, and I feel there's a hell of a lot more to come."

A further English silver came in the men's team table tennis, with Singapore clinching gold via a 3-1 triumph.

The English hockey team won a nail-biting pool match against New Zealand 5-3 thanks to a hat-trick by James Tindall.

Richard Mantell and Rob Moore also scored as England moved to the top of Pool B with one match, against South Africa on Sunday, left to determine which top two will progress to the semi-finals.

Tindall opened the scoring and restored the lead after it had been pegged back as England edged to a 3-2 half-time lead. They scored again through Moore but New Zealand's Hayden Shaw nailed his second penalty corner of the match to keep the Black Sticks in touch until Tindall secured the victory with his third in a thriller.

Good news too for England's women team, who stormed into the semi-finals by defeating Malaysia 3-0 thanks to goals from Nicola White, Alex Danson and Georgina Twigg. There was disappointment for their Scottish counterparts, however, after they had their interest in the competition ended by Australia.

In boxing, Haroon Khan, brother of WBA light-welterweight champion Amir, reached the semi-finals of the flyweight competition by defeating Wales' Andrew Selby via countback after the bout finished at 3-3.

Australia's Anastasia Rodionova became the first ever tennis gold medallist, clinching a 6-3 2-6 7-6 (7-3) victory over India's Sania Mirza, while England lost to Australia in the final of the men's doubles.

In the second round of the men's 200m event on the athletics track, Christian Malcolm and Marlon Devonish both fired a message out to their rivals by cruising through with a minimum of fuss.

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