SYDNEY, April 6 (Xinhua) -- It was an eventful first day at Australia's Gold Coast Commonwealth Games on Thursday, with some high profile withdrawals, a couple of new world records and the first appearance of an 11-year old table tennis prodigy.
Although Australia fared well on the opening day of competition, the news that Olympic and Commonwealth Games hurdling gold medalist Sally Pearson, had to pull out of the games due to an achilles tendon injury was a big loss for the team and her hometown supporters.
It was a similar story for English fans when reigning world champion and Commonwealth Games gold medalist Ben Proud was disqualified for moving off the block too early in his 50m butterfly heat.
As the favourite for the event, Proud told reporters he was "gutted" to be out so early.
There were no such issues for the 64,000 citizens of Bermuda. Triathlete Flora Duffy was the first to win gold at the games and for a short time, put the small island nation on top of the medal tally.
But when it came time for the pool, the Aussies turned it on with the women's 4x100m freestyle relay team breaking the world record in the final.
Freestyle swimmer Mack Horton also took gold in the 400m freestyle and the Aussie men's cycling pursuit team wiped a second off the world record in their final race against England.
At the end of day one, England finished on top of the medal count with six golds, Australia were close behind with five and after weightlifters Muhamad Aznil (56 kg) and Muhammad Azroy Hazalwa (62 kg) took gold in their events, Malaysia was able to hold on to the third spot.
But perhaps the most talked about moment of the first day came when 11-year old Welsh athlete Anna Hursey and her partner Charlotte Carey beat out Indian duo Madhurika Patkar and Mouma Das, in the first match of the table tennis team competition.
When Carey was asked what is was like to have such a young partner, the 21 year old told local media, "obviously she's 11, so she needs to go to bed a bit earlier than us," she joked.
"We need to try and stop her from drinking about 12 Powerades that are just hanging around in the fridges for free. It's like having our own child here a little bit sometimes."
