RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesTwo Aussie besties share a podium, a hometown hero fights his way to the final, and a very famous face wiggles his way into the stands.
Here are the quick hits from day three of the Commonwealth Games.
Every major sporting event has its surprise star.
Sometimes it's an underdog athlete. Sometimes it's a mascot. And sometimes it's a cleaner with a mop and a sense of rhythm.
A short clip from the Commonwealth Games netball venue has captured exactly why sport is about more than the result.
A cleaner who danced as he mopped the court has become an unexpected crowd-pleaser on social media.
The routine, which was done to I Want To Break Free by Queen, had it all: the splits, the worm and twerking. If there were judges, he would have scored 10 out of 10.
Was the "cleaner" just a dancer with a mop employed to entertain the crowd?
That's for you to judge. Either way, he brought a lot of joy to people in the stadium.
With a medal each to their names, attention turned to Aussies Gemma Sellick and Victoria Belando Nicholson as they stepped up to be interviewed after the women's 100m backstroke S9 event.
But the pair had eyes only for each other, their friendship taking centre stage as they gushed about sharing a podium.
"This is my best friend," Sellick said, grinning ear to ear, a question from the media suddenly feeling rather inconsequential.
"This was not even a thought I had; I was not expecting this at all," Belando Nicholson told the ABC .
"To do it with my best friend is actually insane."
As they headed to pick up their medals, the pair were already planning a "debrief later tonight" to celebrate their silver and bronze medals.
The Arena in Glasgow was the venue for one of the maddest competitions at the Games so far: the men's all-around final at the artistic gymnastics.
At the end of the day, Flower of Scotland was on full blast (followed by the latest rendition of The Proclaimers' 500 Miles) as Reuben Ward became the first Scots gymnast to win the competition in Commonwealth Games history.
Jesse Moore also flew the flag, so to speak, as he became the latest Australian gymnastic medal-winner at these Games with a bronze, coming after he had to withdraw halfway through the Games four years ago with a shoulder injury.
But with respect, both these performances were left in the dramatic shadows by the competition of Canada's Felix Dolci.
The men's all-around features all six disciplines: vault, rings, pommel horse, parallel bars, horizontal bars and floor exercise. Gymnasts are split into groups doing the six in different orders, maximising the drama.
Dolci was in a decent spot when he went on the pommel horse, but everything went pear-shaped as he fell off, twice. He ended up 17th out of 18 competitors after two rounds.
Game over, right? Wrong. A score of 14.200 on the vault, followed by 13.950 on the parallel bars, left him in with a vague hope.
And then he delivered on the horizontal bars, absolutely nailing his landing and scoring a whopping 14.500 to finish with the silver medal. Amazing stuff.
The men's 50m breaststroke is a fairly stacked event, with English legend Adam Ramsay-Peaty, Australia's Sam Williamson and South African speedster Michael Houlie all in the field.
But if you look beyond the very top times, you find Scottish swimmer Archie Goodburn.
The Edinburgh-born Goodburn was the British champion in 50 breaststroke in 2023, and had a chance of going to the Paris Olympics. But then he was diagnosed with three inoperable brain cancers in early 2024.
He was in the eighth and final heat on day three, up against Williamson.
The 50m breaststroke is not quite the same "splash-and-dash" as the 50 freestyle, but it's not slow.
Williamson surged through to win in 26.75, with South Africa's Chris Smith second, and Goodburn made the home fans happy coming through for third.
He backed it up in the semifinal to squeeze into the final tomorrow morning AEST in lane one.
Regardless of his eventual placing, you could argue that no-one is flying the Saltire higher at these Games than Goodburn.
The Australian women's wheelchair basketball team notched its first win of the Games on day three, downing South Africa 20-5.
Georgia Munro-Cook was the star for the green and gold, finishing with 10 points in a dominant performance.
Watching on in Glasgow was her father, Murray, who, despite not sporting his famous red skivvy, will be a familiar face to many Australians.
The Red Wiggle was as proud as punch after his daughter's performance.
"She's worked so hard, the whole team has worked so hard, to see them get a win like that is just really exciting," he told ABC Sport.
Munro-Cook was over the moon to have her mum and dad in the crowd, and said it was an interesting role reversal for the family.
"I think it's so funny, I used to go around watching him on stage, and now he's here watching me," she said.
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