Gaze, Cooper do NZ proud
Sam Gaze has overcome a last-lap mechanical issue to win mountainbike gold at the Commonwealth Games.
The 22-year-old avenged his loss to team-mate Anton Cooper in the same race at the 2014 Glasgow Games cross-country race, producing a stunning final lap comeback yesterday.
Gaze had to enter the pits to get something on his bike fixed heading into the last lap, with Cooper attacking immediately.
He clawed his way back in just half of the final 4.5km lap, setting up a thrilling finish.
Cooper then tried to attack him, but Gaze mowed him down and elbowed his way past on a descent before winning the sprint finish.
Their Kiwi team-mate Ben Oliver spent the early stages of the race in a front group of four with the pair and bronze-medal winner South African Alan Hatherly. He fell away to finish fourth.
Oliver had surprisingly won the sprint off the startline, but Gaze was quick to take over as Cooper chased.
Gaze opened a small gap up initially, but eased a tad and was joined by Cooper and Hatherly in a front group by the end of the first lap, establishing an 11-second advantage over the field.
But the front group continued to ease up, which allowed four more riders to catch back up. As soon as that happened, Gaze shot away again through the technical, rocky sections to reduce the leading group to four.
Gaze, Cooper, Hatherly and Oliver continued to lead into the third lap, until Cooper made a mistake on one of the uphill technical sections which saw him pushing his bike for a time and drop to fourth.
Hatherly attacked, with Gaze following, to open up a gap of eight seconds on the two other Kiwis. Gaze dropped a water bottle on the third lap as well, showing visible frustration in doing so, but he was able to pick one up about 2km later.
Cooper latched back on to the leading two by the end of the lap, but Oliver had dropped away by 15 seconds.
With three laps to go, the gap between the leading trio and Oliver was holding at 14 seconds.
Gaze and Cooper both took turns to put the pressure on through the fifth lap, but they were unable to drop Hatherly.
Gaze missed another bottle during the penultimate lap. The race didn’t change during that time as all three riders got the bell together.
That was the prelude to the dramatic final lap, where Hatherly fell away and the two Kiwis sprinted to the finish.
Meanwhile, Samara Sheppard had a puncture on the first lap of the women’s race before finishing ninth, more than 5min behind the winner, England’s Annie Last. That was a statement throw.
With one put of the shot, Dame Valerie Adams showed she won’t be giving up her Commonwealth Games crown without a huge fight.
Adams advanced to the final of the 2018 Commonwealth Games women’s shot put without raising much of a sweat yesterday. On a warm day at Carrara Stadium, the dual-Olympic gold medallist threw 18.52 metres with her first throw to go well past the qualifying mark.
It was her season-best throw as she’s worked her way back to competition form after giving birth to her first child, daughter Kimoana, six months ago. That one throw was the best distance by some measure in the two groups of qualifying.