MANCHESTER, July 31: Jonathon Power, who had vowed to avenge his humiliation at the hands of Peter Nicol four years ago in Kuala Lumpur, succeeded in his mission Wednesday when he beat his bitter rival to clinch the Commonwealth Games mens’s squash gold medal.

The second seeded Canadian pulled off a stunning 9-4, 4-9, 9-3, 9-0 triumph over the Scotsman-turned-England player to erase the memory of the 1998 final in Kuala Lumpur when he descended into histrionics over refereeing decisions.

All of that was a distant memory on Wednesday especially when it took just six minutes to wrap up ther fourth game against a flat and jaded looking world number one.

Earlier in the evening, women’s world champion Sarah Fitz-Gerald had won the women’s title with a tension-packed win against New Zealand’s Carol Owens.

Nicol denied that this nationality change had adversely affected him, and can point to the fact that Power, who has trained more scientifically than any stage in his career, had won all three of their previous meetings this year.

But Nicol, who has been subjected to constant questioning about the issue, has started all his matches with tension-laden slowness.

This time, against an opponent who played more patiently than during his British Open defeat three months ago on the same court, there was no way back.

Power rallied to a good line and length, waited for moments to play his dangerous short game, and when Nicol tried to go short first, Power had enough speed to put him in trouble.

There were still moments when Power’s volatile temperament threatened to let him down.

Several times he argued unnecessarily with the crowd, and eventually that got the crowd shouting against him.

He nevertheless charged so impulsively for a lost cause early in the second game that he collided with Nicol on the way through, and fell heavily.

For a few moments it seemed he might have done serious damage as Power groaned and lay inert, then got up and hobbled in circles before stumbling grim faced from the court.

But when he was given three minutes only to recover by referee Jack Allen, because the injury had been self-inflicted, Power recovered quickly.

And after losing that game, he recovered his rhythm too.

Thereaafter there was rarely much doubt that the former world number one’s body, or his constitution, would last the course.

At 3-6 in the third game Nicol fell whilst fruitlessly trying to take evasive action to avoid conceding a penalty stroke, and after that he won no more points. The champion who was renowned for his fitness was tired.

Fitz-Gerald added the only major title missing in her collection when she won the gold medal with a patchy but often exciting four-game win over her former compatriot Carol Owens.

The top-seeded world and British Open champion won 9-5, 9-0, 2-9, 10-9 helping to erase the memory of her miserable Commonwealth Games final four years ago in Kuala Lumpur when nerves betrayed her in a straight games defeat to the now retired Michelle Martin.

It was also another accolade in an extraordinary 2002 in which she defeated swimmer Ian Thorpe and tennis player Lleyton Hewitt to the title of Australian sports personality of the year.—AFP