Scotland also got onto the medals table with a gold and a bronze and Northern Ireland chalked up a silver.

 

The first day of the athletics programme produced six medals for England.

 

Pete Smith, an apprentice electrician from Hull, won gold in the men’s hammer despite an uneasy start with two no-throws.
 
The 18-year-old is coached by his father Dave, who won gold in the hammer at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in 1986, and proved he has inherited plenty of his talent by producing a penultimate throw of 68.38 metres to clinch the gold.
 
“Missing the first two throws put a lot of pressure on me,” admitted Pete, whose brother Alex also won the hammer title at the last Commonwealth Youth Games four years ago.
 
“I knew that I could win but I didn’t expect to have to work so hard and it was a big relief when I got the throw in that put me in the lead as I knew no-one would beat it.”
 
Shaunna Thompson, from Newton Heath, put up the evening’s most impressive performance with a commanding win in the 100m in a personal best time of 11.46, which was also a Commonwealth Youth Games record.
 
She said: “I’m so pleased

 

"I’ve been wanting to run a PB [personal best] in the 100m - I knew I could do better than 11.64 and I was just waiting for the right competition at the right time.

 

"is the Commonwealth Youth Games and the end of my season so I couldn’t have picked a better time and I’m really happy.”
 
The 16-year-old student will be back on the track again tomorrow in the heats of the 200m and has high hopes of a sprint double.
 
Lewisham student Curtis Griffith Parker saved his best throw until last in the men’s shot put, setting a Commonwealth Youth Games record of 18.56m with his final throw to snatch the gold medal from Stephen Brink of South Africa.
 
To crown a golden night for the Team England athletics squad, Jade Ive set a Commonwealth Youth Games record of 4.05m to win the pole vault, with team-mate Abigail Haywood taking the bronze, while Ben Williams missed out on gold in the triple jump by just one centimetre and had to be content with silver.
 
Weightlifter Zoe Smith, at 14-years-old the youngest member of England's team competing, put up her best ever performance and set a Commonwealth Youth Games and senior British record on her way to winning gold in the women’s under-53kg event.
 
The schoolgirl from Abbey Wood in London, who has only been weightlifting for two years, led after the first element of the competition - the snatch - but her first attempt in the clean and jerk, with the bar at 82kgs, was a failure as she lost her balance and fell backwards.

 

However, she regained her composure and clinched the gold medal with a lift of 87kgs that her nearest rival from India failed twice to match and the former gymnast celebrated with a back somersault to the delight of the crowd.
 
Smith said: “It feels amazing.

 

"I could have done better but it’s my best international performance and I owe it all to my coaches. This medal means more to me than anything in the world and I’m just so happy.”
 
Harlow teenager James Huckle started the gold rush in the shooting range by winning a nail-biting men’s 50m rifle prone event.

 

The 18-year-old qualified for the final in first position with a score of 585 and held a two-point lead over his nearest rivals, Matthew Hall from Northern Ireland and Scotland's Rory McAlpine.

 

Although Hall closed the gap Huckle held his nerve on the final three shots to finish 1.1 points ahead of his rival.
 
Huckle said: “I’m really happy to have won.

 

"I definitely focused more in the final because each shot is so important and you only have 45 seconds.

 

"There was a lot of pressure but I think you can only put pressure on yourself and so I just tried to stay calm.”

 

Earlier, shooting had also produced Scotland's first medal when Kay Copland won the 50 metre rifle prone.

 

The 18-year-old from Banff, who scored 585 from a maximum of 600, beating Afiqah Nurfarah of Malaysia and England's Sheree Cox into second and third place respectively. 

 

She said: "I didn't think I'd ever get gold, I didn't think I'd even get a medal, so I'm so happy.

 

"The event is quite a high standard, so I was quite nervous before the start."

 

Away from the action, four nations yesterday threatened to pull out unless they were given new accommodation following reports that a city hotel had to be fumigated because of a rat problem.