NZ’S mighty medal haul hits 18
‘‘I said if I won a medal I’d never take it off. I think I might shower with it.’’ Lydia Ko
Eighteen is the magic number for New Zealand’s most successful Olympic team, with just mountainbiker Sam Gaze left to compete.
Middle distance veteran Nick Willis and teenage golf sensation Lydia Ko boosted the medal tally to 18 on the penultimate day of competition in Rio, now five clear of their previous record haul.
Willis made history with his close-up third to American Matt Centrowitz in the 1500m final, the 33-year-old becoming the only New Zealander to win dual Olympic 1500m medals.
Ko, meanwhile, finished five shots behind Korean Inbee Park as she sank a birdie putt on the 18th hole to claim outright second. She was ecstatic with a medal at golf’s return to the Olympics.
‘‘I said if I won a medal I’d never take it off. I think I might shower with it. I know it doesn’t rust,’’ Ko said.
Ko’s medal made it nine silvers for New Zealand, more than double their previous best of four in Barcelona in 1992.
With four golds, New Zealand remained 19th on the medal table, just ahead of Canada. They finished 15th in London four years ago with six golds, but five fewer medals in total.
ATHLETICS
Nick Willis produced a late burst to win bronze in the 1500m final, snaring the New Zealand athletics team’s fourth medal in a successful Rio campaign.
The 33-year-old, who won silver eight years ago in Beijing, flashed home over the final 50m to finish third behind US winner Matt Centrowitz who recorded a pedestrian time of 3min 50.00sec. It was the slowest 1500m winning time since 1932.
Silver went to defending Olympic champion Taoufik Makhloufi from Algeria, with Willis clocking 3:50.24 for bronze which was more than 20sec outside his personal best.
Willis overcame some selfdoubt just before the final and, in hindsight, felt he timed his preparation to perfection.
‘‘I’ve made finals before and had nothing left on the start line but I wasn’t here to make up numbers in the same way,’’ he told NZ Newswire. ‘‘I really enjoy the theory of running training, and I feel like we got an A-plus today.’’
GOLF
New Zealand’s Lydia Ko claimed a silver medal, finishing runner-up to South Korea’s Inbee Park in the women’s golf tournament.
Park finished on 16-under after shooting five-under 66 in the final round, to claim a dominant fiveshot victory. Ko avoided a playoff for silver with China’s Shanshan Feng after picking up a birdie on the 18th.
Feng claimed bronze on 10-under with Ko shooting twounder 69 in the final round, finishing at 11-under overall. Ko started the round two shots behind Park but any hopes of the world No1 closing the gap vanished early.
The 19-year-old bogeyed her second hole while the 28-year-old Park rattled off three successive birdies starting at the third hole to race out to a five shot lead over the field.
From there she controlled the final round as Ko’s hot putter from a day earlier went cold. Putts fell fractionally short or just slid past the cup. But birdies on two of the three closing holes moved her back into the hunt for silver with her eight-footer at the last taking her past Feng.
TRIATHLON
Veteran New Zealand triathlete Andrea Hewitt finished out of the medals. Hewitt, 34, was seventh and compatriot Nicky Samuels 13th in a race won by favourite Gwen Jorgensen of the United States.
Both Kiwis were in a group of 18 that came off the bike leg together but Jorgensen and Switzerland’s Nicola Spirig Hug cleared out from the rest of the field on the 10km run. The 30-year-old Jorgensen, the reigning ITU champion, put distance between herself and the defending champion on the last of the four 2.5km laps at Copacabana.
Spiring Hug held on to silver while Britain’s Vicky Holland outsprinted team-mate Non Stanford to claim bronze.
Hewitt had been seventh at the halfway stage of the run but had dropped to ninth at the threequarter mark but made up ground to finish one minute 59 seconds behind Jorgensen. She was sixth in London after she was eighth at her first Olympics in Beijing. Samuels was 3:14 behind the winner in 13th after sitting out 2015 with knee and hip injuries and the 33-year-old’s finish was a big improvement on her 35th from four years ago.
KAYAKING
The New Zealand women’s K4 500m fell short of securing an Olympic medal, placing fifth in their final. Jaimee Lovett, Kayla Imrie, Aimee Fisher and Caitlin Ryan were on the pace through the first half of the race, sitting fractionally behind Hungary and Germany.
However, Belarus inched clear of the youthful Kiwis over the second half and they were also passed by Ukraine. Winners Hungary defended their title. It was the first Olympic K4 regatta featuring a New Zealand women’s crew, who have trained together for less than two years.