The good, the bad, the
The New Zealand class of 2022 can throw their mortar boards in the air at the end of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
This team claimed more golds (20) than ever and was just one gong short of 50, with a number of memorable performances over the 11 days in Birmingham.
Rob van Royen and Ian Anderson covered the Games for Stuff. Here’s how they rated New Zealand’s showing in each sport:
CYCLING: A
Highlighted by Ellesse Andrews and Aaron Gate winning three track gold medals apiece, the track team got New Zealand’s campaign off to a scorching start at the London velodrome. When all was said and done, the track cyclists had 13 medals – eight of them gold – making them the best performing country ahead of Australia. Arguably, only the men’s sprinters will feel they didn’t hit the mark.
The injury to Ally Wollaston hampered the women’s road team in the time trial and road race, but Georgia Williams fetched bronze in the former. When Gate missed a fourth medal by one spot in the time trial, it felt that may be cycling’s lot for the Games. But Gate produced one of the sport and New Zealand’s most memorable and meritorious rides to enter the record books.
If Anton Cooper had not succumbed to Covid, it seemed New Zealand would have claimed the trifecta in the men’s mountain bike event.
SWIMMING/DIVING: A
Nine medals, featuring five golds, was an outstanding return for a sport which has struggled to have any impact at the Games for most of this century, bar para swimming superstar Dame Sophie Pascoe.
New Zealand now has a worldclass individual medley swimmer in Lewis Clareburt, as long suspected.
Andrew Jeffcoat’s backstroke sprint gold was a joy for a swimmer who’d missed selection for the Tokyo Olympics, while 17-year-old Joshua Willmer’s triumph was a delight for both athlete and fan.