Swimming: Golden boy bites the silver bullet

Manchester 2002: As Aussie phenomenon's seven-gold medal quest fails at the sixth hurdle, England swimmers revel in a back-to-back clean sweep of the honours

Ian Thorpe's attempt to win seven gold medals at the Commonwealth Games came to a halt last night when he was beaten into second place in the 100 metres backstroke final.

Thorpe had been trying to become only the second man to win seven golds at a major championships, equalling the feat of the American Mark Spitz at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. The 19-year-old Australian had already won five gold medals during these Games but he could not make it six out six in the backstroke, his weakest event.

That gold went to Thorpe's fellow Australian Matt Welsh, the world champion for 100m backstroke, in 54.72 seconds. Thorpe had to make do with the silver in 55.38, with Malaysia's Alex Lim in third place in 55.44.

James Gibson spearheaded a clean sweep for England in the 50m breaststroke. The Commonwealth record holder won it ahead of Adam Whitehead, with Darren Mew third.

Not to be outdone, the England's women's team matched that feat in the very next event, Sarah Price leading home Jo Fargus and Katy Sexton in the 200m backstroke.

Alison Sheppard broke a 28-year gold medal drought for Scotland as she swept to victory in the 50m freestyle. The 29-year-old won in 24.76sec to become the first Scot to win a Games title since David Wilkie in 1974.

India won the women's hockey gold medal in controversial circumstances when their golden-goal win on the stroke of half-time in extra time was at first ruled out but was then allowed to stand. Mamta flicked the ball into the back of the England net from a penalty corner but umpire Lyn Farrell initially ruled out the strike, having blown her whistle to end the first half of extra-time. The Indians appealed and the goal was given, condemning England to silver.

England, who had fought back from 2-0 down with goals by Sarah Blanks and Helen Grant, had an appeal against the decision turned down by the International Hockey Federation. They had the right to appeal again, but they waived it "in the spirit of the Friendly Games", according to Team England's chief media officer, Denise Tyler. England's coach, Tricia Heberle, added: "England are the host nation and we were not prepared to lose dignity by fighting over a medal. We made a decision in the spirit of the game and the game is always bigger than the team."

David Dolan and Darren Barker claimed boxing golds for England but the team failed to match the four victories they had achieved in the previous Games in Kuala Lumpur four years ago. Dolan rounded off a day of mixed fortunes for his team by following in the footsteps of Audley Harrison and claiming super-heavyweight gold. Earlier the light-welterweight Darren Barker sank to his knees in celebration after beating Uganda's Mohammed Kayongo in a packed MEN Arena. England's Darran Langley, Paul Smith and Steven Birch all had to settle for silver.

The Welshman Jamie Arthur made history by taking lightweight gold and raising the red dragon for the first time in a Commonwealth boxing tournament since the Howard Winstone took the bantamweight gold in Cardiff 44 years ago.

Andrew Baggaley hailed the greatest moment of his table tennis career after partnering Gareth Herbert to men's doubles gold. The English pair survived a real test of nerves as they came from behind to edge out the Welsh pair, Ryan Jenkins and Adam Robertson, in a nerve-jangling deciding game. The Welsh squandered three match points in a marathon 10-minute game before Baggaley and Herbert eventually prevailed on their fourth. The doubles gold made up for English disappointment in the singles where Herbert, Matthew Syed and Alex Parry all lost in the quarter-finals.

The Indian weightlifter Krishnan Madasamy was stripped of his medals yesterday after testing positive for the performance-enhancing drug nandrolone. Madasamy, 28, won three silver medals in the men's up to 62kg category on Tuesday.