The Diamonds’ netball gold medal has added lustre, as it is also the 1000th for Australia in Commonwealth Games history.
Australia started Sunday on 59 golds at the Birmingham Games and the Diamonds’ 55-51 win in the final over Jamaica was the seventh for the day.
But there was controversy amid the triumph, with star cricketer Tahlia McGrath being allowed to play in the T20 final win over India despite being COVID-positive.
Sunday featured some of the best Australian performances at the Birmingham Games, with Cassiel Rousseau producing the dive of his life to win the 10m platform event.
The Australian women also ruled the cycling road race, producing a textbook team performance to set up Georgia Baker in a sprint finish for her third gold medal of the Games.
Kelsey-Lee Barber’s Games preparations were thrown off kilter when she also tested positive to COVID-19 on arrival in England.
But the two-time world champion and Olympic bronze medallist was supreme in the javelin final, snatching the gold medal from compatriot Mackenzie Little with a clutch final throw.
Maddison Keeney also won diving gold in the three-metre springboard, while Aussie men’s pair Chris McHugh and Paul Burnett rallied for a comeback win over Canada in their beach volleyball final.
Australian chef de mission Petria Thomas, herself a three-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist in swimming, said it is an honour to lead the team.
“Australia has a long and proud sporting history, with this 1000th gold medal cementing our spot at the top of the Commonwealth table,” she said.
“I congratulate the Diamonds in bringing home this significant medal in our amazing history and all those who have stood atop the podium at this year’s Games and all the Games, dating back to Hamilton in 1930.
“Sitting in the stands today, watching our athletes fight for every point, every move, and every run made me feel so proud.”
Australia’s 66 golds in Birmingham so far with one day left means it will fall well short of the record 87 won at the 1994 Games in Victoria, Canada.
But it is a significant improvement on the 49 in Glasgow eight years ago, the last time the Games were held in Great Britain.
That was also the only time in the last eight Games that Australia did not top the medal tally, coming second to England.
Australia won two gold medals at the 1911 Festival Of Empire, but these are not counted towards the Games tally.
Australia won three gold medals at the first Empire Games in 1930.
England is a distant second on the overall Games medal tally with 771 gold, 55 of them in Birmingham.
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