Strong living Games dream
Corbin Strong lived out his childhood dream standing on top of a podium with the New Zealand national anthem playing after he clinched Southland’s second cycling gold medal in the space of three days at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
The 22-year-old was the first across the finish line in the men’s 15km scratch race at the Lee Valley VeloPark in London yesterday after being superbly led out by team-mate Campbell Stewart during a frenetic end to an otherwise cagey and tactical 60-lap race.
His gold medal win followed fellow Southlander Tom Sexton’s gold in the team pursuit and silver medal in the 4000m individual pursuit. ‘‘It’s a dream really,’’ Strong told Sky Sport after the scratch race win. ‘‘It was the perfect race for me. It was pretty cagey, lots of attacks going.
‘‘George [Jackson] and Campbell [Stewart] also raced really well. It was just an awesome experience actually. I’m really happy to be at my first Comm Games and for my debut race to finish like this is pretty awesome.
‘‘I remember in primary school, dreaming of a moment when they’d play the national anthem, and for me it was representing my country on a stage like this.’’
The former Southland Boys’ High School pupil fought back from a broken spine to become world champion in the points race in 2020 and he represented New Zealand in the madison at last year’s Tokyo Olympics, but his year has consisted mainly of road racing after signing a WorldTour deal with Chris Froome’s Israel Premier Tech at the end of 2021.
With that in mind, he said his tactic for the 15km scratch race had been to ride aggressively from the start, and that paid off when he made his way into the only successful breakaway.
‘‘That was my game plan coming in actually,’’ Strong told Sky Sport. ‘‘I’ve come off the road, I might not have as good as track legs as some other people, so I really wanted to race aggressive and take it from the start and really make it a hard race.
‘‘I thought that was going to play into my strengths at the moment and that’s the way it panned out.
‘‘I was lucky to be off the front with a couple of strong guys from Wales and Scotland, so I’ll thank them as well, for making it a hard race.’’
Southland rugby sevens player Alena Saili also claimed a bronze medal on day three of the 2022 Commonwealth Games through the Black Ferns’ victory over Canada in the bronze medal playoff.
Southland has nine competitors all up at the 2022 Commonwealth Games with Bradly Knipe and Nick Kergozou also part of the track squad, Shannon Saunders and Kate Heffernan playing for the Silver Ferns team, Dom Kelman-Poto is part of the 3x3 basketball team, and Gore javelin thrower Tori Peeters will take part in the athletics.
‘‘It’s a dream really. It was the perfect race for me.’’
Commonwealth Games success doesn’t necessarily connote to Olympic glory but Bryony Botha, Aaron Gate, Ellesse Andrews, Corbin Strong and Lewis Clareburt’s Birmingham gold medals augur well for Paris 2024.
A glut of gold medals at a Commonwealth corroboree may whet the public appetite, but high performance sports chiefs tend to keep their feet on the ground and timepieces handy.
Apart from team sports such as netball, rugby sevens and lawn bowls, few codes on the Commonwealth Games schedule boast fields approximating the quality of a world championships or Olympics. Thus, world records at Commonwealth Games are relatively rare.
However, Commonwealth Games success is not to be sneezed at - especially in Covid climes. It can be a confidence booster for an upcoming Olympics.
On that score, New Zealand cycling and swimming look in good shape for Paris 2024.
Clareburt, a two-time gold medallist in Birmingham, set a new Commonwealth Games record - 4min 08.70 sec - in winning the 400m individual medley.
That’s a staggering improvement from the 4:10.98 he swam in finishing fourth at the 2022 world championships in Budapest a month or so ago.
Clareburt’s time was faster than the winner of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic 400 IM title - Chase Kalisz of the United States and he achieved an important psychological blow in Birmingham by beating Australia’s Olympic bronze medallist Brendon Smith.
Clareburt was seventh in the Olympic final just over a year ago in 4:11.22, over three seconds tardier than his time at the Comm Games. In some ways, Clareburt’s Birmingham 200m butterfly gold medal was even more eyecatching.
A late inclusion in the field, he won in 1min 55.60 - still some way to go to close the gap on Hungary’s Olympic champion, Kristof Milak, who set a new world record in winning the recent world championships final.
Comparisons are invidious, but Clareburt is clearly New Zealand’s most promising Olympic Games male swimming prospect since dual 1996 Atlanta Games freestyler Danyon Loader, a 200m butterfly bronze medallist at Barcelona in 1992.
CYCLING SOARS
For a sport reeling from administrative turmoil away from the velodrome, cycling is in remarkably good shape on the track. Bryony Botha, 24, won a gold medal in at the Commonwealth Games’ London track cycling venue in the 3000m individual pursuit. That event, lamentably hasn’t been on recent Olympic schedules, but Botha is clearly world class.
Her Commonwealth Games record time - 3min 18.456sec would have earned her the silver medal at the 2021 world championships in France (where she did not ride).
Botha’s improvement over the
astonishing. Her Birmingham feat was 17 seconds since her Commonwealth Games debut, when she finished ninth and missed the finals on the Gold Coast in 2018, and over seven seconds quicker than her 11th placing at the 2020 world track championships in Berlin where she was 11th in qualifying in 3:26.837.
Ellesse Andrews also oozes potential in the women’s sprint category, having disposed of Canada’s Olympic champion and 2021 world championships bronze medallist Kelsey Mitchell.
Andrews, a keirin silver
could be a title contender at the next world championships in France in October.
While Andrews and Botha were hardly bolters, New Zealand male cyclists Aaron Gate and Corbin Strong are no strangers to success.
Gate - now 31 – was a dual silver medallist at the 2020 world championships in Berlin in the madison relay event and men’s teams pursuit.
New Zealand’s gold medal team pursuit victory in London was no surprise. Gate, Campbell Stewart and Australian-born Jordan Kerby were part of the bronze medallist Kiwi team at the Tokyo Olympics
the 2020 worlds. The established trio were joined this week by Tom Sexton - individual pursuit silver medallist to Gate - for the Commonwealth Games victory in a record time of 3min 47.575 sec.
Commonwealth Games scratch race champion Corbin Strong may only be 22, but he’s been on the global radar since 200 when he helped the pursuit team take silver at the world champions and then won the points race gold medal.
A silver medal in the omnium multi-event class at the 2021 worlds only served to underline the Southlander’s class as an emerging endurance racing force.