Mum’s the word for Jade Lally
Three years after giving birth to her daughter, Nyla, discus thrower Jade Lally came close to winning Commonwealth gold on home soil but was thwarted by Chioma Onyekwere of Nigeria on Tuesday night (Aug 2) in Birmingham.
Lally led the competition with a 57.33m first round effort but Onyekwere hit back to take the lead with 61.70m in the fourth round. Lally, 35, improved to 58.42m in the final round but it was too little too late as another Nigerian, Obiageri Amaechi, took bronze with 56.99m.
Lally was a self-confessed reluctant mother after an unplanned pregnancy in 2019 disrupted her athletics career. "I am scared of losing my identity, because most people know me as a discus thrower,” she said at the time.
She won bronze at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and threw an English record of 65.10m in 2016 – a mark that is No.2 on the UK all-time rankings behind the long-standing British record of 67.48m held by Meg Ritchie. Outside athletics Lally is also a world indoor rowing champion.
Her athletics career stalled briefly during her baby break but she showed in Birmingham she is almost back to her very best as she came close to winning the Commonwealth crown.
KJT enjoys overnight lead
Katarina Johnson-Thompson ended the first day of her heptathlon with a crowd-pleasing 23.70 win in the 200m and an overall lead of 109 points. The defending champion from Gold Coast 2018 began her day with 13.83 in the 100m hurdles before high jumping 1.84m and throwing 12.94m in the shot put to give her a score of 3765.
In second place overnight with 3656 points sits Kate O’Connor of Northern Ireland with Taneille Crase of Australia third with 3604 and Holly Mills of England fourth with 3602.
For Johnson-Thompson is comes soon after she placed eighth in the World Championships in Eugene and her overnight lead gives her a nice cushion going into the long jump, javelin and 800m on Wednesday.
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