Bernard dominates decathlon

Bernard won the shot put and high jump on day one

Jamaica's Claston Bernard ended the first day of the Commonwealth Games decathlon with a commanding lead of 270 points.

Bernard won the shot put and high jump and turned in high-scoring performances in the sprints.

He finished the opening day with 4,285 points, ahead of Scotland's Jamie Quarry and Australian Matt McEwen in the other medal positions.

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And Bernard's position was strengthened on Saturday night by the withdrawal of Scott Ferrier, who had led the competition in its early stages.

The Australian was still in second spot after the high jump but limped out of the arena and did not reappear for the 400m, the final event of the day.

Ferrier limped out while in second place

Bernard made the most of that opportunity to cement his position at the head of the field.

He ran the event's fourth fastest time of 49.61secs and outperformed all the leading contenders to add another 833 points to his score.

He followed home Guernsey's Dale Garland, who shattered his own personal best by more than a second to win in 47.81.

The other heat saw personal bests for both athletes in an English one-two, Anthony Sawyer (49.32secs) and John Heanley (49.44secs).

Bernard had started the day by running 10.82secs for the 100m, finishing behind Georgios Andreou of Cyprus, with Garland third.

But Andreou slipped back after a disappointing performance in the long jump, allowing Ferrier to move into gold medal position with a jump of 7.35m.

Day three athletics results

After that, however, Bernard took over, winning both the shot put and high jump in quick succession.

The Jamaican's 15.37 shot put was by far the best performance in the discipline.

And he was again way out in front in the high jump, in which he cleared 2.15m.

Quarry outperformed Ferrier in the shot to move into second but the Australian reversed that result in the high jump to re-take the silver position.

However, Ferrier's withdrawal after the fourth event promoted Quarry back into second, with 4,015 points.

Australia's McEwen now lies third on 3,949 points, with Andreou a further 12 points back.