MELBOURNE (Reuters):ENGLAND'S BEST day at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games ended in tears when their relay jinx returned to deny gold for the 4x400 women's team.
A controversial evening at the MCG also brought heartbreak for Australia's 1500 metres gold medal hope Craig Mottram who tripped and fell during the race to scupper his chances.
England's women crossed the line first ahead of Australia, but the host nation were promoted to the gold after Tamsyn Lewis lodged a protest against Natasha Danvers Smith for starting in
her position at the second changeover.
"As far as I'm concerned England are the Commonwealth Games 4x400 champions. That's it!" fumed Danvers Smith.
LITTLE SYMPATHY
But Lewis had little sympathy for her English rivals. "Rules are rules and I'm happy with the gold," she said.
Despite the disappointment for Mottram and the English relay team, both Australia and England had many other reasons to celebrate.
Australia equalled the record for the most medals won at a single Games with one day still remaining. They have 207 medals, including 79 golds. England are second with 32 golds ahead of Canada (22), India (21) and South Africa (12).
England's haul was boosted by a dominant performance in the boxing ring where they won gold in five of the 11 categories.
World 100 metres record holder Asafa Powell collected his second gold medal as the Jamaicans cleaned up the sprint relays to go with their men's and women's 100, 200 and sprint hurdles golds.
WON ALL SPRINT MEDALS
Jamaica are the first nation to win all the sprint medals at a major championships since a Carl Lewis-inspired United States team at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
Samaresh Jung, the Indian shooter who had earned the nickname 'goldfinger', failed in his attempt at a record sixth gold in shooting when his pistol malfunctioned.
There was another disappointment for India when they lost the women's hockey final 1-0 to the hosts after a late goal from Nikki Hudson.
England's 4x400 relay disqualification compounded a miserable week at the MCG after their men's 4x100 relay team dropped the baton in their heat and were eliminated.
It also enabled Australia to complete the 4x400m relay double when individual 400 champion John Steffensen led off.
That was small consolation to Mottram, whose brother Neil won a basketball gold on Friday. He was inconsolable after the 1500 where he was favourite to win in his home town.
"To finish the Commonwealth Games like that is frustrating," he said. "I'm pretty annoyed about it."
IDEALLY PLACED
The 5,000 silver medallist was ideally placed in third position with 700 metres to go when England's Nick McCormick clipped the heels of teammate Andrew Baddeley, who in turn fell forward and brought down Mottram.
New Zealand's Nick Willis avoided the commotion and ran a brilliant race to claim his country's first 1,500m Commonwealth gold medal.
Baddeley had little sympathy for Mottram, saying the Australian only had himself to blame.
"Anyone can take the lead and if someone goes down for not taking (the lead) then basically it's their fault. The only person he (Mottram) can blame is himself," the Englishman said.
