ENGLAND’S long wait for a women’s 100m Commonwealth Games champion will go on after Amy Hunt was squeezed into silver by New Zealand’s Zoe Hobbs in the final at a sodden Scotstoun Stadium in Glasgow.

There had been high hopes that the 24-year-old Hunt would be the sprinter to end a home nation drought in the Games’ blue riband event that stretches back 40 years to Heather Oakes’ victory in Edinburgh in 1986.

But while Hunt surged through the middle after a slow start to outpace her closest rivals, she reckoned without Hobbs, who stormed through from lane seven to triumph in a personal best of 10.93, with Hunt leading the chasing pack on 10.98.

Australia’s Torrie Lewis completed the podium with a time of 10.99 just in front of Hunt’s England team-mate Imani Lansiquot, who recorded a season’s best 11.02 to finish in fourth place.

“I think gold was definitely there for the taking,” admitted Hunt. “I beat Zoe in the semis and she’s an incredible athlete. Obviously she ran a PB to win, so all the credit to her.

“I think I had a really terrible first 60 metres. I think it just shows the calibre of my top end speed that I could kind of dig myself out of the hole there.”

Hunt had been favourite to claim a significant win following the late withdrawal of St Lucia’s Olympic champion Julien Alfred, and the decision by multiple world champion Shericka Jackson only to contest the relays.

She was also one of the few significant home nation medal hopes still standing across the track and field programme after a slew of late pull-outs including Katarina Johnson-Thompson and her sprint team-mate Dina Asher-Smith.

And despite a series of low-key health issues this season, Hunt certainly arrived in Glasgow on a high after recording a 200m season’s best despite finishing fifth at the Diamond League meeting in London earlier this month.

Hunt, who beat Jackson to win world silver over 200m in Tokyo last year, had cruised through her semi-final earlier on Tuesday, shrugging off the teeming rain to qualify third fastest in 11.02 seconds, just ahead of Hobbs.

Hunt confirmed she will stay in Glasgow to contest the 4x100m relay towards the end of the Games but will not enter the individual 200m.