All the sporting news that happened overnight.

Black Sticks end shootout curse

Finally, the Black Sticks win a penalty shootout. And what a time to do it.

Black Sticks captain Stacey Michelson, Samantha Harrison and keeper Grace O'Hanlon, with a heroic effort, proved match winners as New Zealand snuck past England in their Commonwealth Games semifinal to progress to contest gold against host Australia tomorrow.

Nightmares must have been flooding back for the Black Sticks. Penalty shootouts are not their thing at major events. Four years ago in Glasgow, the Black Sticks lost a penalty shootout against England at this same stage after being locked 1-1 at fulltime.

Two years prior it was a similar story, the Black Sticks losing a shootout to the Netherlands in the semifinal of the 2012 London Olympics.

Not this time. They refused to let history and heartbreak repeat.

Another 'heart-breaking' fourth

Discus thrower Siositina Hakeai was robbed of a Commonwealth Games bronze in the final round at the athletics field last night.

Hakeai was sitting in third place with a best effort of 57.16 but ended up finishing fourth for the second straight Commonwealth Games after Indian competitor Navjeet Dhillon bettered the Kiwi by just 37 centimetres with her sixth and final effort.

"Finishing fourth on my last round…it's heart-breaking. But there's nothing I can do. I can only come back stronger," Hakeai said.

"I was really happy with the distance considering there was no wind but I know I'm much better than what did today. It's just heart-breaking."

Kiwi runner Brad Mathas finished strong to run a personal best and claim a fifth placing in the 800m final, won by Wycliffe Kinyamal of Kenya. Mathas said it was a stepping stone towards the Tokyo Olympics. He also noted he couldn't wait to eat some food in the athletes' village.

"I love food. I've been looking at the food in the dining hall and I'm going to smash it when I've finished this. They've got these little profiteroles things, I'm going to make a pyramid of those and start eating."

More success for squash players

Joelle King and Paul Coll advanced to the squash mixed doubles semifinals after a hard fought 11-10, 11-10 win over Indian pair Joshna Chinappa and Harinder Pal Sandhu. They will now face another India duo Saurav Ghosal and Dipika Pallikal Karthik today for a spot in the gold medal match. Coll backed that up with a straight sets win in the men's doubles round of 16 clash with Campbell Grayson to advance to the quarter-finals.

More athletes go walkabout

A men's squash pairing from Sierra Leone and a Rwandan para-powerlifting coach are the latest African absentees to go missing from the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

Hours after Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton warned athletes who breached their visa conditions they'd be tracked down, locked up and deported, Sierra Leone's Ernest Jombla and Yusif Mansaray did not appear for their men's doubles match on Thursday morning.

It means Jombla and Mansaray failed to appear for either of their matches on the Gold Coast after skipping Tuesday's clash with Welsh pair Peter Creed and Joel Makin.

Despite the pair not making their matches, Sierra Leone officials insisted both were still at the village and had merely confused the times of their events.