Golfing gold (and bronze) for Chloe at Youth Olympics

Wrexham’s Chloe Williams starred in a memorable weekend for GB at the Australian Youth Olympics Festival in Sydney, taking bronze individually and forming part of the GB team who took gold – one of the first golf Olympic gold medals for more than 100 years.

Williams had a closing round of 68, sharing the best score of the day, to push her way up the leaderboard into the medal positions, finishing four shots behind Team GB colleague Georgia Hall, who claimed the gold medal.

Australia’s Celina Yuan claimed silver to make it a remarkable family double with her brother Kevin winning the boys event.

Team GB easily won gold by 12 clear shots from Australia, while New Zealand took bronze a further 20 shots adrift. Team GB were captained by Wales' Tegwen Matthews, the victorious Curtis Cup captain.

“This is a great result for Chloe against many of the world’s top amateur golfers, another significant step forward in her progress at the age of 17,” said Ben Waterhouse, the Golf Union of Wales director of performance.

“She left herself a little bit to do in the final round to claim an individual medal, but then she went out and did it, which was a most impressive performance.

“To get an individual bronze is great, but to be part of the team performance which took gold by such a big margin is also a great credit to Chloe – and Tegwen of course, for whom this is another great success following on from her leadership in the Curtis Cup.

Williams had rounds of 74, 69, 75 and that closing 68 at the event, which helped to mark golf’s return as an Olympic event after 109 years.

The sport will return to the Olympics in Rio in 2016 after last being played as part of the Games in 1904, with this event in Australia including 17 sports and being held at many of the venues used for the 2000 Sydney Olympics.