Gutsy silver for Barber
As Alana Barber struggled with cramps in the final kilometres of the 20km race walk, the motivation of two men propelled her to Commonwealth Games silver.
One was her father, who left New Zealand for the first time in 45 years to see his daughter race.
The other was some random bloke who kept shouting at her.
‘‘It was about 5km to go and I felt my legs cramping up and I was really worried, but there was some guy, a Kiwi guy, I don’t know him, but he just kept saying ‘you need to keep going’. And that’s what I thought, I just needed to keep going and I could get a good result,’’ Barber said after her gutsy medalwinning performance.
When the cramps started, she was in bronze medal position, but her ability to push through the pain earned her silver when Australian Claire Tallent was disqualified for lifting with only 2km to go.
She also knew her father would be somewhere in the crowd willing her on.
‘‘Both my parents are here. My dad hasn’t left New Zealand since 1973, so for him to make the trip over was a really big deal.
‘‘That’s what was going through my mind when I was cramping up, that I just needed to get to the finish line to do them proud.’’
Barber’s mother, Shirley Somervell, competed as a runner at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, which Barber said made yesterday’s result extra special.
The 30-year-old walked the last few metres with a huge grin on her face, high-fiving friends and fans and waving two flags – the New Zealand one and the silver fern.
Her joy was in stark contrast to Tallent, who slumped to the ground in tears after her disqualification, leaving compatriot Jemima Montag to win by more than a minute from Barber.
Barber was always in the top four going through the first 5km with a group of three Australians: Montag, Tallent and Beki Smith.
But Montag and Tallent broke away at the 8km point, with Barber and Smith unable to keep pace.
Barber was able to stay within 20 seconds at the 12km mark as Smith fell away. Her mother finished seventh in the 800m in Christchurch, and fifth in the 4 x 400m relay.
Barber also used to be an 800m runner but suffered knee soreness when attempting to run longer distances. To keep fit without aggravating the injury, she took up race walking and stuck with it. She was 35th at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Earlier, fellow Kiwi Quentin Rew was fifth in his 20km race walk, finishing two minutes off the medal places.
Meanwhile, Black Sticks coach Mark Hager hopes his charges weren’t thinking too far ahead.
The New Zealand women’s hockey side will meet Australia in a key Commonwealth Games pool match today on the back of a frustrating 0-0 draw against Canada yesterday.
"Maybe the girls were thinking about that rather than this game," Hager said. "Hopefully they weren’t."
New Zealand suffered form a lack of poor finishing and fluency against a tightly-organised Canadian team.
"Early on, I thought we had enough chances, we played alright in the first quarter," Hager said.
"And then we went away from everything we were trying to do. More Comm Games P14