Dan Greaves shone the brightest on a sunny Monday morning to claim England’s first track and field Gold medal on day 2 of the Commonwealth athletics at Hampden Park.

Competing in a morning session filled with heats and qualifying rounds, Greaves, a 4 times Paralympic medallist, took victory from Wales’ Aled Davies in the men’s Para-sport F42/44 Discus final, after a 3^rd round 59.21m throw saw him overtake his Welsh opponent in the aggregate standings by just 11 points. They were joined on the podium by Nigeria’s Richard Okigbazi who threw a personal best of 39.38 for bronze.

Meanwhile in the Decathlon, England’s John Lane and Ashley Bryant are both in a great position after 3 events as they sit in 2^nd and 3rd respectively behind early leader Canadian Damian Warner, who produced an electric Commonwealth record performance in the 100m to win the day’s first event in 10.29 and in turn collect a huge 1025 points.

For Lane it was a story of consistency as he picked up 900+ points in each of the first 2 disciplines before a 14.12 throw in the shot put placed him on 2597 points, 94 points behind Warner. As for Bryant, his situation improved vastly following a final round 7.56m in the Long Jump that took the Englishman from top to the bottom of his pool, and after picking up 733 points in the shot he sits on 2521 to marginally lead South African Willem Coertzen.

On the track, both the Men’s 400m and the Women’s 1500m got underway, as huge favourite, Olympic and World champion Kirani James opened up his medal quest with an easy 45.53s first round victory ahead of England’s Michael Bingham, who finished second in the same heat. Bingham’s team mates Martyn Rooney and Nigel Levine also progressed in contrasting circumstances; Rooney produced an impressive performance to take victory from Lalonde Gordon in 45.57 in the final heat, as Levine was left to sweat on his place after finishing 4^th in the 1^st. The fastest qualifier was Botswana’s Isaac Makwala with 45.33; the athlete, who recently set an African record of 44.01, will surely be James’ biggest challenger.

In the 1500m, Kenya’s World Indoor Champion Helen Obiri took the first heat in a rapid 4:04, with compatriot Faith Kipyegon the winner of the 2^nd in 4:05 following a 61 second last lap that made up for a slow start. Home nation hopes Laura Muir, Hannah England and Laura Weightman all made it through as automatic qualifiers and they will be joined in the final by Jemma Simpson who gained the 12^th and final qualifying place.

Even less clear cut qualification came in the High Jump where the finalists were decided on count back after a combined 13 athletes from the two pools finished with a final height of 2.20m. The unlucky 13^th place going to Australia’s Brandon Star. The final 12 includes Derek Drouin, who has jumped 2.40m this year, Englishmen Chris Baker, Martyn Bernard and Tom Parsons as well as Scotland’s Raymond Bobrownicki.