All that glitters IS gold
With apologies to Hayden Wilde and the sevens teams, it’s all gone right for New Zealand’s Commonwealth Games team in the initial days of Birmingham 2022.
As of yesterday, the silver fern-wearers had remarkably notched up 13 gold medals, with the country’s speedy cyclists at the forefront of the gong raid.
With 24 medals bagged and another seven days of competition pending, the
New Zealand team is clearly on a path towards improving on the 46 medals, including 15 gold, won four years ago on the Gold Coast – which was one greater than the return from Glasgow in 2014.
As Stuff colleague Tony Smith pointed out, success at Commonwealth level isn’t always an indicator of being worldbeaters. But the Kiwis can only compete against whoever is put up against them here, and to date they’ve proved more than a match.
Certainly Cycling New Zealand will be allowing itself at least the smallest of smiles, possibly privately, after a horror
12 months which began with the death of Olivia Podmore, leading to a review into the organisation and High Performance Sport NZ. That saw them apologise for ‘‘unresolved trauma’’ and detailed a culture of ‘‘medals before process’’, a lack of transparency and accountability around selection and recruitment, and an environment where gender biases are prevalent.
Racing regularly to the podium at these Games isn’t proof that those huge underlying problems are even under way to being rectified. Yet results have been outstanding, with a strong showing from the women’s track riders, while the host nation has been surprisingly lacklustre, given its pedalling pedigree.
Birmingham has provided a big splash for Swimming New Zealand, with Lewis Clareburt emerging as the figurehead the sport has desperately sought since Danyon Loader’s days.
Clareburt has yet to reach the Olympian heights of the Dunedin prodigy, but coach Gary Hollywood says he can, and he’s beaten quality opposition here.
The early bright moments seem a long way from the dark days of Melbourne 2006 and Delhi 2010, when New Zealand collected just six golds at each Games.
Birmingham 2022 is partly a test of how badly many athletes have suffered from Covid-19, and how they’ve recovered.
Initial signs are that New
Zealand has fared finer than many and a deep gaze into the crystal ball returns a prediction of 50 medals (including up to 19 golds) – making it the second-most successful Commonwealth Games behind the hosts grabbing 58 medals in Auckland in 1990.
The list of potential New Zealand medal-winners over the remaining week is longer than the queue of rugby fans wanting Scott Robertson to take charge of the All Blacks.
The cyclists are not done yet. New Zealand should feature in the road time trials, the men’s mountain bike race might see more memorable moments from Sam Gaze and Anton Cooper and the women’s road team features some precocious young talent.
Clareburt could add a third medal in the 200 individual medley early tomorrow and other strong prospects may push the togs team to an almost unprecedented double-figure visits to the podium.
Paul Coll and Joelle King have been working their way methodically to the pointy end of the squash competition and dual singles gold is in play, along with more success in the doubles.
The field competitors will lead the way in the athletics via shot putters Tom Walsh, Jacko Gill and Maddy Wesche and women’s hammer hurlers Julia Ratcliffe and Lauren Bruce.
Team strongman David Liti is out to defend the weightlifting crown he snatched (and clean and jerked) in Australia and netball, cricket and hockey teams all have their eyes on the medal rounds, while there’s likely to be another Josh Willmer to spring up out of the box.
A half-century – featuring 19 gold which would top the Kiwi record haul of 17 in Auckland in 1990 – would be a gleaming return.