Kate, Wills add royal flair to Commonwealth Games

GLASGOW, Scotland – The second in line to the British throne visited the Commonwealth Games on Monday, and he brought along a few of his relatives.

Prince William and his wife, the Duchess of Cambridge, watched gymnastics and boxing with Williams’ younger brother Harry. And Prince Edward, William and Harry’s uncle and son of Queen Elizabeth II, brought his family at the table tennis competition.

“It’s a game that you need to sit close to in order to appreciate the speed and the skill,” Prince Edward said as he watched Nigeria beat India 3-1 in a team bronze medal match.

He said he doesn’t own a table at home, but that could change.

“That was one of reasons why I got my children here, as an opportunity to introduce them to a couple of sports that they might not otherwise have known. So perhaps in the future,” Prince Edward said.

Queen Elizabeth officially opened the games last week and visited some events and athletes the following day.

Here are some other highlights Monday:

India rules: India won its fourth shooting gold medal of the Commonwealth Games when Jitu Rai took the 50-meter pistol event. Rai, ranked fourth in the world, broke the games record in the event. He finished ahead of countryman Gurpal Singh, with Daniel Repacholi of Australia earning the bronze. “The more calm I was the better it would be for me, and in the end there was no tension or pressure at all,” Rai said.

David takes gold: World squash champion Nicol David of Malaysia, the gold medalist from New Delhi in 2010, successfully defended her women’s singles title with a 12-10, 11-2, 11-5 win over Laura Massaro of England in just 44 minutes. There was a brief stoppage in play in the third game when Massaro was hit in the face by David’s racket during a rally.

Golden greaves: England’s Dan Greaves won the discus throw in a Paralympic event Monday. The 31-year-old Greaves, who has a congenital foot defect, first won gold at the Paralympics after the Athens Olympics in 2004. At the Commonwealth Games, Paralympic events are held side-by-side with those for able-bodied athletes at the track and swimming pool, and are reflected in the medal standings. “This is my first multi-sport able-bodied games, and it feels so good to come away with something I’ve worked so hard for,” said Greaves, who once competed in an England junior team as an able-bodied athlete.

Bad bullets?: English grandfather Michael Gault missed out on a chance to win the most number of Commonwealth Games medals in history when he failed to qualify for the final of the 50-meter air pistol on Monday. The 60-year-old Gault, who is competing at his sixth games, had drawn level with fellow shooter Phillip Adams of Australia on the all-time list when he won his 18th medal on Saturday, taking bronze in the 10-meter discipline. “I wanted to give it a little bash and try to get the all-time record,” he said Monday after finishing 13th. “But unfortunately the bullets I used wouldn’t go into the middle of the target.” Gault will retire from competitive shooting after these games.

Looking ahead: On Tuesday, the swimming events conclude with the 1,500 meters and medley relays; at the track, the men’s 110-meter hurdles and decathlon and women’s 400- and 1,500-meter finals are held; and mountain biking makes its only appearance with golds to be contested in men’s and women’s cross-country races.