• Commonwealth Games - Day Eight

Boxing joy for home nations eases hockey heartache

Sean McGoldrick is a major bantamweight hope © Getty Images

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Day Eight gallery

The boxing ring was the place to be at the Commonwealth Games on Monday, after a period of relentless action saw 13 fighters from the home nations reach the finals of their respective weight categories.

Most dramatic of all was England's Callum Smith, who produced a scoring jab with three seconds remaining to defeat Carl Hield 5-4 in the last four of the welterweight competition. Smith will now take on Northern Ireland's Patrick Gallagher for gold after Gallagher won an equally tight affair 5-4 against Dilbag Singh.

European champion Paddy Barnes was the first to enjoy success as he reached the final of the light-flyweight competition with a one-sided 5-0 win over Amandeep Singh. Barnes' triumph was quickly overshadowed by Wales' Sean McGoldrick though, who stunned Olympic bronze medallist Louis Julie 2-1 to reach the bantamweight final. England's Bradley Saunders also produced plenty of drama in his 10-7 victory over Louis Colin, allowing a 9-3 lead to slip to 9-7 before he booked his place in the light-welterweight final.

It will be an England v Scotland encounter in the final of the lightweight competition after England's Tom Stalker overcame Jai Bhagwan 10-5, setting up a showdown against Scotland's Josh Taylor, who showed fine defence in a 5-0 win over Lomalito Moala. And there will be another all-British final in the light-heavyweight class, after Scotland's Callum Johnson stopped Jermaine Asare to set up a meeting with Northern Ireland's Thomas McCarthy, who beat Joshua Makonjio 9-4.

England's Anthony Ogogo and Northern Ireland's Eamonn O'Kane added to the list of pugilists to book a final date in the afternoon, competing in the middleweight division, but neither had as easy a passage as England's Simon Vallily, whose opponent failed to turn up as he strolled into the heavyweight final against Northern Ireland's Steven Ward . All 13 home nations fighters are guaranteed at least a silver medal. Meanwhile, Haroon Khan - brother of Amir - could only take bronze in the flyweight division after the Pakistan representative lost to Suranjoy Mayengbam in his semi.

Scotland won the first gold medal on offer on Monday as Kay Copland and Jen McIntosh claimed the women's 50m rifle prone pairs ahead of England's Michelle Smith and Sharon Lee. The Scottish duo's score of 1169 was equalled by Smith and Lee but Copland and McIntosh took the gold by virtue of hitting the minute x-ring in the centre of the target more times.

"It was pretty tough," said a jubilant McIntosh. "It wasn't easy out there today. The wind was up. It was quite strong. We shoot on a reasonably sheltered range back home so it was bit of a struggle. "We quite often shoot together [with the English pairing] so it is good to beat them. We're Great Britain team-mates and there is plenty of banter between us but I'm not going to lie to you, it feels good to win."

England suffered defeat to Australia in the hockey semi-finals © Getty Images

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There was also a bronze for England in the men's skeet pairs after Richard Brickell and Clive Bramley were edged out for silver by Canada on countback.

Ellen Faulkner and Amy Monkhouse secured gold in the lawn bowls, with the English pair producing a brilliant display to beat Malaysia 12-6 5-7 5-2. The Malaysian pair forced the match into a tiebreak decider, but came unstuck in the second leg as Faulkner and Monkhouse took four points in the end and it was enough for them to secure gold.

In the men's final, Merv King and Stuart Airey suffered a one-and-a-half to half defeat to South Africa duo Shaun Addinall and Gerald Baker.

There was heartache for England in the women's hockey semi-finals, after they were edged out 1-0 by Australia in a battle dubbed 'the Commonwealth Ashes'. A superb defensive effort by Australia secured their place in the final of the competition, where they await New Zealand. South Africa, who lost to the Black Sticks, will battle for the bronze medal with England.

Monday also brought the start of the highly-anticipated rugby sevens tournament, where England booked their place in the quarter-finals with two comfortable wins on the opening day in Delhi. A third victory, over Australia, should have meant they avoided Samoa in the last eight. However, Samoa surprisingly lost to Kenya, meaning Ben Ryan's side face a bruising start to Tuesday's knockout rounds.

They got off to a flying start with a 59-7 thrashing of Sri Lanka, James Rodwell snaring the first hat-trick of the tournament while Ben Gollings and Kevin Barrett helped themselves to doubles in the landslide Pool D win. England followed up that opening win with a 55-0 rout of Uganda, Mathew Turner scoring a hat-trick, prior to their later meeting with Australia, which ended up being decided 21-19 after a missed conversion in the last act of the game. Dan Caprice crossed twice for England.

Wales went close to matching England's points haul in their unpopular 56-7 spanking of hosts India in front of the massive crowd at Delhi University. Tom Prydie and Lee Williams each crossed twice and Gareth Davies scored a try and kicked six conversions for a 17-point haul of his own. India had a consolation try for Amit Lochab to celebrate but Wales soon went about the business of defeating Tonga 39-7 thanks to two tries from Richie Pugh. South Africa were a step too far though, with the 'Boks winning 21-5 to leave Wales facing the prospect of a quarter-final meeting with the All Blacks.

Sally Pearson finally won Commonwealth gold © Getty Images

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Crowd favourites New Zealand were on hand to belt Canada 43-7 in Pool A before routing Guyana 52-0 - scoring 15 tries across their two fixtures. A 46-0 triumph over Scotland followed to extend the Kiwis' unbeaten run at the Commonwealth Games to 18, with Tomasi Cama and Sherwin Stowers both starring. Scotland now face South Africa in the last eight.

On the athletics track, England's Abi Oyepitan ran a season's best 23.26 to claim a silver medal in the women's 200m as the entire field was outclassed by Cydonie Mothersill of the Cayman Islands. Mothersill clocked a time of 22.89 to take gold, her country's first in athletics, while Joice Maduaka faded for fourth.

The 4x400m men's relay finalists include England and Wales after a couple of thrilling semi-finals. Kenya were the outstanding nation, finishing a comfortable first as England battled their way to second marginally ahead of Botswana.

England got the baton round safely in their heat of the 4x100m, as the quartet of Ryan Scott, Leon Baptiste, Marlon Devonish and Mark Lewis-Francis qualified for the final in second behind Canada.

Australia's Sally Pearson finally got her hands on a gold medal, winning the women's 100m hurdles in a time of 12.67. Pearson had her 100m sprint medal taken away from her at the back end of last week due to a false start, but this time there was no stopping her as she tearfully celebrated victory.

In the field, Steve Hooker took pole vault gold for Australia, but there were silver and bronze medals for English duo Steve Lewis and Max Eaves. Lewis failed to clear 5.70m as he surrendered his assault on the gold medal.

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