Australia Narrowly Defeats Canada in Commonwealth Games Women’s Final

Georgia Godwin, Ruby Pass, Breanna Scott, Emily Whitehead, and Kate McDonald

The Australian women had a stunning competition in Glasgow on Friday night to land back on top of the Commonwealth Games team podium for the first time since 2010.

With a squad nearly identical to the silver medal-winning team that competed four years ago in Birmingham, Australia earned a 158.400 to defeat Canada by just over a point. Led by veteran Georgia Godwin in her fourth Commonwealth Games appearance, the team started out with unbeatable rotations on bars and beam before sealing the deal with hit after hit on floor and vault.

Godwin, who was emotional after finishing a beautiful floor routine, earned a 52.100 in the all-around to make the final along with Breanna Scott, who is currently ranked third with a 52.350, with Scott’s performance on beam the best in the competition. The team also saw brilliant work from Kate McDonald on her three events, with bars of course her standout – she leads the field there – while Ruby Pass contributed scores on vault and bars, and Emily Whitehead provided a lovely leadoff routine on floor before hitting a strong Yurchenko 1½ on vault.

Canada, also starting on bars, had to dig themselves out of a hole following their first two apparatuses, neither of which were disastrous, though they had to count a fall from Lia Monica Fontaine on bars as well as a few nervous sets on beam.

Fontaine came back brilliantly on floor, however, and put up a superb Yurchenko double full in the final rotation, where Canada also counted a massive Tsuk 1½ from Ellie Black – who was out-of-this-world today and currently leads the all-around with a 53.400! – and a lovely Yurchenko 1½ from Lia Redick, who was also a standout on floor. While these three were the biggest contributors to the team in general, Alyssa Guerrier Calixte showed a gorgeous beam set, while Gabrielle Black had falls on her two apparatuses, but looked so good in both routines outside of those errors.

These two teams were always going to be the teams to beat, with both programs sending the best of the best to compete here, while the reigning champs England brought a less experienced group mostly comprised of athletes who might not be top choice for Great Britain’s world championships team this year, but who still proved themselves among the top competitors in Glasgow this week.

Led by 2024 Olympian and 2025 world medalist Abigail Martin, who struggled on bars and beam but still finished seventh in the all-around, the team also saw a fantastic performance from Shantae-Eve Amankwaah in her first major senior team competition (I especially loved her stalder-heavy bars set, which was absolutely stunning), while Alia Leat was lovely to watch – if a bit shaky – in all four of her appearances, Ruby Stacey contributed a solid Yurchenko 1½ to the team’s vault score, and Shanna-Kae Grant – who stepped in as the alternate just yesterday – came in during a high-pressure floor rotation to help the team lock down a spot on the podium.

It didn’t seem at first like the Welsh team would be able to contend for the podium, as they put up great work across the board on their first apparatus – bars – but then went on to struggle a bit on beam and looked like they might not be able to make up for it. However, they came back strong on floor and finished with an excellent vault rotation, where Frances Stone had a gorgeous Yurchenko full, Abigail Roper showed the biggest and cleanest Yurchenko full of the competition, and Ruby Evans wrapped things up with a brilliant Yurchenko double full.

Evans was excellent all day, while other standout performances included Jemima Taylor with a clean bars set and lovely, clean work on floor, and Emily Roper had the team’s best bars performance.

With the struggles the English team had, it looked like things were going to come down to the wire in the final rotation, though the English team’s strength on floor held them above water, allowing them to finish nearly a point ahead of Wales.

Rounding out the top eight were South Africa in fifth, Scotland in sixth, Singapore in seventh, and Malta in eighth.

South Africa seemed to be dealing with a lot of injuries, one that took Buhle Nhleko out of the competition, while both standout athletes – Olympians Caitlin Rooskrantz and Naveen Daries – looked to be downgraded or struggling throughout the meet, though they and their teammates Zelmé Daries and Karma Visagie still put together a solid performance in the final subdivision.

The Scottish team looked like a talented bunch, though it seemed it simply was not their day, with lots of uncharacteristic falls, including in every routine on beam. They weren’t going to be a medal threat or break in among those top four teams today, but I think they were all hoping to at least have a strong showing in front of a home crowd. Despite the mistakes, though, they all generally looked to be having fun throughout the meet and taking their performance in strides – especially Ellee Cheetham, who made her international debut at 24 years old after retiring from the sport in 2019 and returning to competition to become Scottish champion earlier this year.

On the individual level, it was exciting to see Amanda Yap of Singapore, who became a fan favorite when she made the beam final at worlds last year, finish among the top 10 in the all-around, making both the beam and floor finals here.

I also loved that all three athletes from Malaysia earned individual final spots, including Rachel Yeoh Li Wen on bars after ranking an incredible third in qualifications with a career-best score whiel her teammates Cadence Teh Zi Qi and Yeap Kang Xian got into the all-around final while nearly making both vault and beam as well.

Alana Walker of Jamaica surprised to get into the bars final with a big hit set, Protistha Samanta of India and Courtney McGregor of New Zealand earned spots in the vault final, and Philippa Busuttil of Malta put together a fabulous hit beam to break into that final group.

Rankings from today’s competition are below. We’ll see you again tomorrow for the MAG all-around final at 12 pm in Glasgow (which is 7 am ET) and then again for the WAG all-around final at 6 pm in Glasgow (which is 1 pm ET)!

TEAM FINAL RANKINGS

1. Australia 158.400
2. Canada 157.300
3. England 154.300
4. Wales 153.400
5. South Africa 142.750
6. Scotland 140.850
7. Singapore 140.100
8. Malta 130.750

ALL-AROUND QUALIFICATION RANKINGS

1. Ellie Black, Canada, 53.400
2. Ruby Evans, Wales, 52.800
3. Breanna Scott, Australia, 52.350
4. Georgia Godwin, Australia, 52.100
5. Lia Monica Fontaine, Canada, 52.050
6. Lia Redick, Canada, 51.850*
7. Abigail Martin, England, 51.400
8. Shantae-Eve Amankwaah, England, 51.400
9. Alia Leat, England, 50.800*
10. Amanda Yap, Singapore, 50.050
11. Emily Roper, Wales, 49.600
12. Naveen Daries, South Africa, 48.150
13. Crystelle Lake, Scotland, 48.100
14. Caitlin Rooskrantz, South Africa, 47.700
15. Courtney McGregor, New Zealand, 47.300
16. Yeap Kang Xian, Malaysia, 47.000
17. Zelmé Daries, South Africa, 46.850*
18. Cadence Teh Zi Qi, Malaysia, 46.750
19. Ellee Cheetham, Scotland, 46.700
20. Philippa Busuttil, Malta, 45.900
21. Alena Tan, Singapore, 44.850

R1. Sophie St. John, Malta, 44.550
R2. Georgia Charalampous, Cyprus, 44.000
R3. Protistha Samanta, India, 42.250
R4. Eshitaa Rewale, India, 41.700

VAULT QUALIFICATION RANKINGS

1. Lia Monica Fontaine, Canada, 13.750
2. Abigail Martin, England, 13.600
3. Georgia Godwin, Australia, 13.350
4. Emily Roper, Wales, 13.300
5. Abigail Roper, Wales, 13.275
6. Ruby Stacey, England, 13.025
7. Protistha Samanta, India, 13.025
8. Courtney McGregor, New Zealand, 12.925

R1. Yeap Kang Xian, Malaysia, 12.775
R2. Sienna Shields, New Zealand, 12.625
R3. Pranati Nayak, India, 12.575

UNEVEN BARS QUALIFICATION RANKINGS

1. Kate McDonald, Australia, 14.200
2. Ellie Black, Canada, 13.850
3. Rachel Yeoh Li Wen, Malaysia, 13.800
4. Emily Roper, Wales, 13.600
5. Shantae-Eve Amankwaah, England, 13.500
6. Ruby Pass, Australia, 13.400
7. Ruby Evans, Wales, 13.300
8. Jemima Taylor, Wales, 13.300*
9. Breanna Scott, Australia, 13.150*
10. Alana Walker, Jamaica, 12.800
10. Georgia Godwin, Australia, 12.800*

R1. Abigail Martin, England, 12.800
R2. Lia Redick, Canada, 12.650
R3. Jun McDonald, New Zealand, 12.450

BALANCE BEAM QUALIFICATION RANKINGS

1. Breanna Scott, Australia, 13.600
2. Amanda Yap, Singapore, 12.950
3. Kate McDonald, Australia, 12.900
4. Georgia Godwin, Australia, 12.900*
5. Ellie Black, Canada, 12.900
6. Lia Monica Fontaine, Canada, 12.850
7. Philippa Busuttil, Malta, 12.850
8. Alia Leat, England, 12.800
9. Alyssa Guerrier Calixte, Canada, 12.700*
10. Lia Redick, Canada, 12.700*
11. Ruby Evans, Wales, 12.550

R1. Yeap Kang Xian, Malaysia, 12.500
R2. Naveen Daries, South Africa, 12.350
R3. Shantae-Eve Amankwaah, England, 12.150

FLOOR QUALIFICATION RANKINGS

1. Abigail Martin, England, 13.250
2. Lia Monica Fontaine, Canada, 13.200
3. Shantae-Eve Amankwaah, England, 13.050
4. Lia Redick, Canada, 13.000
5. Ruby Evans, Wales, 12.900
6. Georgia Godwin, Australia, 12.850
7. Kate McDonald, Australia, 12.800
8. Breanna Scott, Australia, 12.750*
9. Ellie Black, Canada, 12.700*
10. Emily Whitehead, Canada, 12.500*
11. Amanda Yap, Singapore, 12.500