Olympic champion Nancy Jebet Langat showed her class while winning the women's 1500 metres in fluent style in the Commonwealth Games athletics action at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Friday.
Langat was untroubled as she coasted to a Games record time of 4:05.26, ahead of Nikki Hamblin of New Zealand (4:05.97) and Stephanie Twell of Scotland (4:06.15).
The other Kenyans in the field, Irene Jelagat and Viola Kibiwot finished poorly on the straight and ended up sixth and seventh respectively.
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In the last lap, Langat tore through the back straight brilliantly and came onto the home bend in comfortable lead.
Andy Turner led a one-two-three sweep of medals by the English athletes in the 110m hurdles event. With a crowd of around 25,000 turning up to cheer the Indians, especially the medal hopes in triple jump, the atmosphere was electrifying and it suited everyone.
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Turner had to come from behind to get past Sharman over the last two hurdles and over the flat to win the gold in13.38s. As he neared the finish-line, Turner raised his right hand to signal his triumph.
It has been an excellent season for the 30-year-old Englishman, the CWG gold to add to the European championship title in July last. “I so wanted gold today since it was the last race of the season; so it is fantastic. I have still got Barcelona (European championship) on my mind,” said Turner.
Christian Harmse, 37, won his gold at last in the CWG hammer throw event. Bronze medallist in 1998 and 2006, the South African hurled the hammer to a distance of 73.15m, well below his standards and yet good enough for the gold.
Botswana's Amantle Montsho, the pre-race favourite, lived up to her billing while winning the women's 400 metres in a Games record 50.17s, easily bettering Manjeet Kaur's National mark of 51.05s set in Chennai in 2004, for an Indian all-comer's record.