Fair to medalling at Games?
Kiwi team’s record 20-gold haul saw them ranked fifth in Birmingham. Aaron Goile compares this with previous Games hauls.
It was a record-breaking goldmedal haul for New Zealand at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, but how does their fifth-place finish on the medal table stack up?
The Kiwis’ collection of 20 golds this year beat their previous best tally of 17, from Auckland in 1990, and when all was said and done in Birmingham they finished well clear of sixth-placed Scotland (13 golds) and behind only India (22), Canada (26), England (57) and Australia (67).
So how does that compare to New Zealand’s previous placings at the Games?
Depending on which way you measure it, it could be considered the country’s ninth-best finish on the table of the 22 editions.
Fifth has been the most common position for New Zealand, ending in that spot on eight occasions. There have seven times been better finishes – five fourth-place efforts and two third-placings.
While there were 10 fewer nations competing at the former compared to the latter, it’s that 1950 event in Auckland which could be considered the best-ever finish, as New Zealand were nine medals (of 88 on offer at 10.23%) off England in second place, compared to the 19 (of 104 on offer at 18.27%) behind the secondplaced English that they were in 1962 in Perth.
Using that logic, the 2022 effort comes in second-best when ranking New Zealand’s eight fifthplace finishes, slotting in behind the 2018 campaign.
At that event on the Gold Coast it was the same quartet of Australia, England, India and Canada in front on the ladder, though the Kiwis – two golds clear of sixth-placed South Africa – ended equal on 15 golds with the Canadians, only relegated to fifth on the silver-medal tiebreaker (40-16 in favour of Canada).
While 1958 in Cardiff saw New Zealand just one gold behind fourth-placed Scotland, that equated to 1.06% of the 94 total golds available, while this year’s margin of two to fourth-placed India was only 0.71% of the total golds and could be considered a stronger performance.
Only four times have New Zealand featured outside the top six on the medal tally – three of those coming in the past five editions – and just twice outside the top 10. Those worst finishes were both 11th placings, in 1970 in Edinburgh, and 2010 in Delhi.