Tammara Thibeault, 4X400 relay team strike gold at Commonwealth Games

Natassha McDonald, Kyra Constantine, Aiyanna Stiverne and Micha Powell

Canada’s Tammara Thibeault struck gold in women’s middleweight boxing final on Sunday, highlighting the country’s 4 gold medal day at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.

The 25-year-old Montreal native defeated Rady Adosinda Gramane of Mozambique by unanimous decision.

Thibeault added to her recent success, following a world championship gold medal at the 2022 IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in Istanbul in May.

The Canadian, who was defeated in a quarter-final at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021, improved from a won bronze medal in the same event at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

The Commonwealth Games women’s 4x400m relay final involved an amazing late push by a Canadian athlete, a photo finish, post-race drama and another gold for Canada.

Natassha McDonald, Aiyanna Stiverne and Micha Powell took care of Canada’s first three stints, placing the country in third place behind England and Jamaica.

Tammara Thibeault

Kyra Constantine then put on a strong final push to place Canada well in front of the last Jamaican runner. The 24-year-old crossed the finish line side-by-side with the English athlete in a photo finish.

Initially, the official results had Canada’s time of three minutes 25.84 seconds as 0.01 seconds shy of the English athletes, who celebrated their gold medals on track after the announcement.

Moments later, England was disqualified from the event due to a lane violation, which propelled Canada to the gold medal and Jamaica, who had a time of 3:26.93, to silver.

“Everybody did their part really well,” said Constantine, a Toronto native. “I got the baton in a really good position and all that was left for me to do is to fight, I guess. I’m proud, I’m happy.”

The English team protested the decision to no avail.