Katherine Rednall has had ‘an absolute blast’ in Glasgow and sealed a memorable week by landing her first Commonwealth Games gold.
The 30-year-old from Ipswich defeated familiar foe Ali Merrien, of Guernsey, 2-0 in the final of the women’s singles.
Rednall won triples bronze at Gold Coast 2018 and can now call herself an individual medallist on her sport’s biggest stage.
“This is the pinnacle for us in bowls,” she said. “It's everyone's dream to get a Commonwealth medal because it's as high as you can go.
“It's been a fantastic couple of weeks and it's been great for Team England.
“It's been an absolute blast on the greens and I've really enjoyed it.
“I don't think I've smiled so much [as I did on the podium]. It was a pleasure to share it with Ali and Shae [Wilson, who won bronze], look at the medals and wave the unicorn to the crowd.”
Rednall lost just once in the group stages, via tie-break to Canada’s Kelly McErihen, and defeated Wilson, from Norfolk Island, in the semi-finals to set up her shot at glory.
She did not have it all her own way but showed resilience when it mattered to come out on top, winning the first set 8-6 and the second 8-3.
“I was two down to potentially lose the first set by one with one bowl to go, and managed to find a good one,” she said.
“Ali is a top-class opponent, we've played each other plenty of times before and it has always been nip and tuck.”
Jamie Walker and Nick Brett had to settle for silver in the men’s pairs after losing a tie-break to Northern Ireland’s Adam McKeown and Gary Kelly.
Walker and Brett took the second set 4-2 after losing the first 6-2 to set up the decider, which was won by McKeown and Kelly.
Skip Walker said: “We would have liked to play a bit better, but we put ourselves in a positions to get to that tie break. I'm proud of the way we fought back in that second set and put ourselves in with a good chance to win that gold.”
Brett added: “Sometimes it's just one good bowl in a tie-breaker, but unfortunately it wasn't us.
“It wasn't us at our vintage, which is probably more of the disappointment for us. We fought on and didn't make it easy for them, but it wasn't our day.”
In the para men’s pairs B6-B8, Kieran Rollings and Joe Peplow sealed bronze by beating Scotland’s Stuart Sloan and Garry Brown.
The momentum appeared to be against the English pair as they went down 9-1 in the second set, having taken the opener 5-4, but Rollings and Peplow recovered their composure to win the tie break.
“We’re absolutely elated,” Rollings said. “It was so nerve-wracking – we’re just happy to get that bronze medal.
“It’s been a tough week and we’ve managed to go out there and do ourselves proud.
“They are tough opposition but we’ve managed to come through the other side.”
