Live: Commonwealth Games, day five action from Birmingham

The Black Sticks Women face a crunch match against arch-rivals Australia to open New Zealand’s day five at the Commonwealth Games.

After back-to-back wins over lesser opponents, 2018 gold medallists New Zealand face what will probably be their toughest challengers for a repeat gold in Birmingham at 8pm on Tuesday (NZT).

At the track, the athletics programme kicks off with New Zealand’s fastest woman, Zoe Hobbs, in round one of the women’s 100m at 11.15pm.

Hobbs is in heat one and will fancy her chances of making the final early on Thursday, where the hot favourite will be world championships bronze medallist Elaine Thompson-Herah. Her fellow Jamaicans from the world champs podium, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson, are notable absentees in Birmingham.

Pole vaulters Olivia McTaggart and Imogen Ayris will soar for medals just after 6am on Wednesday, while throwers Maddi Wesche and Connor Bell have their qualifying rounds early on day five.

Squash top seeds Paul Coll and Joelle King can each book their spots in the respective gold medal matches in the men’s and women’s semifinals, while the women’s fours bowls and women’s 3×3 basketballers both play for bronze.

Swimming gold medallist Andrew Jeffcoat backs up in the men’s 200m backstroke heats, a day after his stirring victory in the 50m.

Gymnast Sam Dick is through to the men’s vault final, while the White Ferns are up against Sri Lanka at 5am after their first-up win over South Africa.

Kiwis in action at the Commonwealth Games on Tuesday (all NZ times, * denotes if qualified):

Bowls-

7.30pm: Women’s triples round 1 (Val Smith, Tayla Bruce, Nicole Toomey), women’s pairs round 1 (Katelyn Inch, Selina Goddard)

Hockey-

8pm: Black Sticks women v Australia, women’s pool B

Judo-

9pm: Men’s under-81kg preliminary, QF, SF, repechage (Elliott Connolly)

Swimming heats-

9.32pm: Men’s 200m backstroke (Andrew Jeffcoat)

10.06pm: Men’s 50m freestyle (Cameron Gray)

10.29pm: Women’s 50m backstroke (Hazel Ouwehand)

Athletics-

10pm: Women’s shot put qualifying (Maddison Wesche)

11.15pm: Women’s 100m, round 1 (Zoe Hobbs)

11.44pm: Men’s discus qualifying (Connor Bell)

Bowls-

10.45pm: Women’s fours (Val Smith, Tayla Bruce, Selina Goddard, Nicole Toomey), bronze medal match v Fiji, men’s singles round 1 (Shannon McIlroy), para mixed pairs B2-B3 (Gerald Brouwers, Sue Curran) round 4

(Wednesday, August 3-)

Gymnastics, artistic-

12am: Men’s vault final (Sam Dick)

Squash-

3am: Women’s singles semifinal, Joelle King v Hollie Naughton (Canada)

3.45am: Men’s singles semifinal, Paul Coll v Saurav Ghosal (India)

Bowls-

3.15am: Para men’s pairs B6-B8 (Graham Skellern, Mark Noble) bronze medal match v England, men’s fours round 1 (Ali Forsyth, Mike Galloway, Andrew Kelly, Tony Grantham), women’s triples round 2 (Val Smith, Tayla Bruce, Nicole Toomey)

Basketball 3×3-

3.30am: Women’s bronze medal match v Australia

Judo-

4am: Men’s under-81kg medals* (Elliott Connolly)

Cricket-

5am: White Ferns v Sri Lanka, group B

Weightlifting-

5.30am: Women’s 87kg + medals (Hayley Whiting)

Boxing-

5.45am: Women’s featherweight (under-57kg) round of 16, Erin Walsh v Elizabeth Oshoba (Nigeria)

Athletics-

6.05am: Women’s pole vault final (Imogen Ayris, Olivia McTaggart)

Swimming-

6.13am: Men’s 200m backstroke final* (Andrew Jeffcoat)

7.11am: Men’s 50m freestyle semifinals* (Cameron Gray)

7.46am: Women’s 50m backstroke semifinals* (Hazel Ouwehand)

8.30am: Women’s 800m freestyle final* (Eve Thomas)

Netball-

7am: Silver Ferns v Trinidad & Tobago, pool B

Boxing-

7.45am: Men’s light middleweight (under-71kg) round of 16, Wendell Stanley v Thabiso Dlamini (Eswatini)