Newcastle-born Cameron Crombie has blitzed the field in the men’s F38 shot put final on the Gold Coast on Wednesday night to clinch his first Commonwealth Games gold medal.
The 32-year-old, raised at Coal Point but now based in Canberra, fell short of his world-record mark of 15.95 metres but was well clear of fellow Australian Marty Jackson and South African Reinhardt Hamman.
Reigning para-world champion Crombie, who has hemiplegia, threw 15.74m at Carrara Stadium.
Elsewhere on the athletics program and retiring Novocastrian Benn Harradine starts his discus campaign on Thursday morning (10am) with an eye to make Friday night’s final and replicate his gold-medal effort from Delhi eight years ago.
Thursday night (8:05pm) sees Charlestown’s Erin Cleaver return to the track for the women’s T38 100 metre final after a silver in the long jump on Sunday.
And this weekend Celia Sullohern has a crack at the women’s 5000 metres on Saturday (3:20pm) while Kurt Fearnley bids farewell to the green and gold uniform in the men’s T54 marathon on Sunday (6:10am).
