HEROIC HESSON SEALS ENGLAND GOLD IN BRUM

Myles Hesson hit a dramatic overtime winner as England’s men took 3×3 basketball gold at the Commonwealth Games.

The hometown hero sealed a 17-16 victory over Australia in the gold medal game to finish off an unbeaten run.

“It’s incredible,” he said. “I’m still trying to figure out the words to put it together. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d make the game winning shot here in Birmingham for Commonwealth Games gold. It’s almost a joke.

“I played basketball in every corner of this city, just around the corner is where I catch the bus to get into town, my grandparents brought me to the market over there. I am Birmingham, so this means so much.
“I’m going to carry this moment with me for the rest of my life now. This has been a two-year process, we’ve worked so hard as a four for the last two months.

“We’ve pushed Australia, one of the best teams around, after such a short time. Just imagine what we can do if we can push this now?”

England’s women were left with silver, losing 14-13 to against Canada in their final.

“We’ve come here and got a silver medal but when you are that close to a gold medal it’s going to hurt and be disappointing,” said Cheridene Green.

“There are no regrets, we’ve put everything out there against a really good team but we’ve come up just a little bit short. At the end of the day we’re still Commonwealth medallists, the fans are still cheering our name and that’s something to be proud about.”

Gareth Murray hinted he’s played his last game after Scotland’s basketballers were edged out 13-12 by Canada in a dramatic playoff for men’s bronze.

Glasgow Rocks guard Kyle Jimenez shrugged off an ankle injury to score seven points but he missed a contested shot with two seconds left that would have forced overtime.

It means the Scots were frozen out of the medals in a repeat of their fourth place from Gold Coast in 2018 and denied 37-year-old Murray the dream final act of his playing career.

The Arbroath-born forward said: “Basketball wasn’t included at Glasgow in 2014 but then, when it was announced it would be in 2018 and we could be going back to Australia, I thought ‘I’ll be 33 so let me see if I can hold on.’ Then the body held up and four years later, I thought: ‘can I hold on again?’

“When it was confirmed it would be 3×3, I thought I can do this for sure. To finish with a Commonwealth Games would be great. I thought maybe at the start of this summer, I was going to retire but I hadn’t really 100% thought about it. But now I think this will be it.”

Photos: Mansoor Ahmed

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