Burnett, Sweet and Costello win Commonwealth medals (From Bucks Free Press)

Burnett, Sweet and Costello win Commonwealth medals

SOUTH Bucks athletes won three medals in a tremendous Thursday at the Commonwealth Games.

For England, Simon Burnett of Wycombe District Swimming Club won bronze in the 4x200m freestyle.

And in the judo, Angharad Sweet won silver for Wales at over 78kg, while Amanda Costello, of Micklefield Judo Club, won bronze in the U70kg for Scotland.

There were also some good performances elsewhere, with cyclist Roger Hammond finishing eighth in the road race.

But Wasps trio Paul Sampson, Phil Greening and Josh Lewsey and former RGS man Nick Duncombe were unable to inspire England to success in the rugby 7s.

And it ended badly for former RGS student Jon Wyatt. The hockey player received a yellow card and had to sit out ten minutes of England's 6-3 win over South Africa.

In the judo, Sweet faced tough competition from England's Simone Callender but some good wins in the round robin tournament meant the silver was heading towards to the 21-year-old.

Sweet said: "It's fantastic. I didn't expect to get so far and the nerves were sky high but it's a great feeling."

And Costello then followed that up with a bronze medal, though she said she was disappointed, having been ranked number two in the event beforehand.

The key match was the semi-final against number one Samantha Lowe of England. In a fiery duel, Lowe was ahead and then Costello was controversially penalised, leaving her with too much to do.

But Costello managed to keep her head to defeat Marianne Sherpe to win bronze.

Costello said: "I'm not pleased with the bronze. I knew the semi-final was going to be a hard fight but I'm disappointed with the result."

In the swimming Burnett won his first medal with a super swim.

The 19-year-old only knew he would be swimming in the 4x200m freestyle a week before but ended up as the fastest swimmer for England, with a time of 1min 50.23secs.

And he helped the team to bronze in front of a packed Manchester aqautics centre.

But sadly for Burnett, he was unable to replicate his form in the individual event, with the swimmer failing to make the final of the 100m backstroke, finishing as the tenth best swimmer in the semi-finals.

Roy-Allan Burch, of Amersham Swimming Club, also lost out, failing to make the semi-finals of the 50m freestyle and 100m backstroke.

In the cycling, Roger Hammond had a medal chance with less than 10km left of the 188km road race.

The 28-year-old had managed to catch up with the group chasing eventual winner Stuart O'Grady on the final lap but then saw another breakaway dash his medal hopes.

Hammond eventually came in eighth in a time of 4.46.20.

He said: "Our team talk was to get a medal so that was what I was racing for but it wasn't to be."

There was also disappointment for south Bucks' hockey players. Keeper Simon Mason didn't play in the game for fifth place, while Wyatt was yellow carded for pushing a player.

And the rugby 7s team lost their quarter-final 7-5 to Fiji, despite Sampson's try, though they went on to win the Plate competition, thrashing Australia 36-12 in the final.

August 6, 2002 09:00