Commonwealth Games 2010: England's Louise Hazel wins heptathlon gold

Day six at the Commonwealth Games was a good one for British teams with Hannah Miley winning gold in the pool for Scotland while England's Louise Hazel scored a lifetime best points total in heptathlon to claim gold in front of a packed Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. More than 40,000 spectators had turned up to cheer on the large contingent of Indian athletes in competition, but it was the 25-year-old Birchfield Harrier Hazel who attracted the most attention. Coming into the tournament she was expected to have only an outside chance of a medal. But after six disciplines she led the event's No1 ranked athlete, Canada's Jessica Zelinka, by a points margin that allowed her a nine-second margin in the final discipline, the 800m. Hazel's finish in fifth place on 2min 20.33sec put her well within that margin and gave her a lifetime best score of 6,156 points and a 56-point finishing lead over Zelinka. "In January I told my physio that I was going to get a gold medal, but I was only joking," said a tearful Hazel. "So to come here, be realistically outside of a medal chance, and to come away with gold is more than I ever expected." Hazel was particularly thrilled with her long jump of 6.44m and her javelin throw of 44.42m this afternoon. "I fancied myself more as a bronze medallist, but as the events went on, I knew it was on," she added. "I was running around and I kept telling myself, 'You're cool, you're calm, you're under control,'" she said. "As I was running in I was counting – I think she [Zelinka] got about six seconds on me, but I knew I just had to finish." England's Grace Clements was second in the 800m in 2.16.06sec to consolidate her third-placed finish, as she won bronze by 61 points. Clements said: "To get a medal is absolutely unbelievable. My aim was to come here and enjoy it and then feel like I couldn't possibly have tried any harder and I can honestly say that's the case." Elsewhere in the athletics stadium Greg Rutherford won long jump silver but Chris Tomlinson's season ended in a whimper as injury contributed to his failure to register a legal leap. British swimmers claimed seven medals in the final session in the pool, with Scotland's Miley the standout performer striking gold in the 400m individual medley. Miley held off the Australian Samantha Hamill on the final leg to touch in 4min 38.83sec, adding the Commonwealth title to the European crown she claimed in Budapest in August. England's Keri-Anne Payne was third in 4min 41.07sec. "It really hurt in that last 100 metres, I can't ask for any more, it's been a tough couple of days," said Miley. "To win Europeans on day one and to finally win Commonwealths on day six, there's stuff I need to improve on, but it's in the bag." Miley was rewarded for her punishing training routine of swimming 80,000m per week under the supervision of her father and trainer, Patrick, who revealed that Miley had been feeling below par at the beginning of the week. "This one here was all about pressure and particularly her not being 100% at the beginning of the meet and I apologise to Hannah here because I know she would never mention it, she never does," said Miley's father. "In the circumstances it's quite extraordinary. For me that was all hurt. It hurt so much in that last 100m. Fortunately she is much more like her mother than her father." There was more good news for Scotland as Peter Kirkbride won silver in the men's 94kg weightlifting class. The Kilmarnock weightlifter achieved 144kg in the snatch and 189kg in the clean and jerk for a combined score of 333. Kirkbride said: "I am ecstatic. It's a good result, not just for me, but for everyone that's supported me. I really have something to be proud of. It's amazing. I gave it my all."