Breen leaps to Commonwealth glory

If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.

That was the case for new Commonwealth Games champion Olivia Breen as she overcame two fouls from her opening efforts to comfortably win the women’s T38 long jump final.

The 2017 world champion, this time competing in the colours of Wales, finally got on the board in the third round with a jump of 4.56m.

As it turned out, that would have been enough to secure her the title but the 21-year-old kept pushing and improved that mark to 4.86m with her sixth and final attempt.

That represented a new personal best and Commonwealth Games record and saw her top the podium by half a metre from Australia’s Erin Cleaver and Taylor Doyle.

Molly Kingsbury was sixth for England in a season’s best 3.85m with Scotland’s Amy Carr seventh with 3.65m.

Breen finished 12th in the long jump at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games with Sunday’s result marking a strong improvement – and there could yet be more to come on the Gold Coast with the Welsh athlete due to compete in Thursday’s T38 100m.

“It is a dream come true, when I got off the plane from Rio, the Commonwealth Games were my aim and I’ve done it,” she said.

“With the last jump I just went for it after three no-jumps and I hit it.

“I’m over the moon, I’m so happy. I did the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow four years ago and came fourth ago so I can’t ask for any more.

“I probably won’t be able to stop smiling for a while, my cheeks will probably start hurting but I am really happy. I have got the 100m on Thursday, which is really exciting, I will enjoy this and then quickly get my head down for that.”

Meanwhile swimmer Alice Tai’s impressive Games continued as she picked up her second medal in the pool after her 100m backstroke gold on Friday.

The 19-year-old touched second in the women’s S8/S9 100m freestyle final in a time of 1:03.07.

That was only five hundredths of a second slower than gold medallist Lakeisha Patterson of Australia while Scotland’s Toni Shaw came home fifth in 1:04.19.

“It was really good. I would be disappointed with a silver but it was a massive PB so I’m really happy with that,” she said.

“The past four months I’ve really been getting back into training and it’s been going well.

“Last year freestyle wasn’t an event I was really considering as everyone was really fast but I think I’m going to start training it more.”