Pursuiters not only Commonwealth calamity
The men’s team pursuit are not the first New Zealanders to suffer misfortune, be misguided or commit a misdemeanour at a Commonwealth Games.
On Thursday night they fielded an illegal bike at Brisbane’s Anna Meares velodrome.
Regan Gough, Nick Kergozou, Campbell Stewart and Tom Sexton were disqualified from riding for bronze.
One of the bikes was found to be outside the specified configurations by five or six millimetres in the front cockpit.
Cycling New Zealand high performance director Martin Barras took responsibility, saying the apology he made to the riders was “particularly painful”.
Here are five other examples through the Commonwealth years. The late Neroli Fairhall entered Kiwi folklore when she won gold as a paraplegic against able-bodied athletes using a recurve bow at Brisbane in 1982.
She hit another target when a British journalist asked whether sitting down [in a wheelchair] to shoot helped her in the windy conditions.
Fairhall replied: “I don't know, I've never shot standing up.”
Disabled bowler John Davies was sent home for inappropriately touching a Games volunteer at Manchester in 2002.
He said the incident, which cost his triples team a gold medal-winning chance, happened in the communal area of the Games village while heading to dinner.
Davies admitted placing his hands on a volunteer's breasts, but explained in a press release the action was not malicious.
It's just one of those things that shapes you. I'm still proud of what I did. I just overheated and I didn't realise. Craig Barrett
“Earlier that day when we were playing Kenya, a young female streaker took our minds briefly off the serious side of sport.
“I was asked by one of the volunteers what the streaker looked like. I jokingly said I'd show them and asked one of the volunteers to turn around. In a clumsy attempt to demonstrate the physical difference between them I held the volunteer in a compromising position with my hands against her breasts. It was a foolish gesture and, while the incident was over in seconds, it will haunt me for a lifetime.”
Craig Barrett was within sight of glory, having put minutes on the field at Kuala Lumpur in 1998 when he wavered out of control.
Barrett was a picture of pathos as chef de mission and former Commonwealth Games gold medallist Les Mills eventually coaxed him from the course. His body betrayed his mental will. As Barrett said years later: “It's just one of those things that shapes you. I'm still proud of what I did.
“I just overheated and I didn't realise.”
Sylvia Potts' fell two metres from victory in the 1500m at Edinburgh in 1970. The moment was excruciating to watch as she slipped to ninth in a split second.
Potts ran the final leg of the baton relay into QEII stadium at the opening of the 1974 Games in Christchurch. A memorial to her and husband Allan is held each year with the Potts Classic in Hawke’s Bay, as a tribute to their coaching deeds through the years. Their son Richard, who ran for New Zealand at the 1990 and 1994 Games, is the meet director.
The New Zealand team endured multiple stops on their way to Cardiff for the 1958 Games but few are more memorable than refuelling at what was then Dum Dum Airport in Calcutta.
The team was understood to have enjoyed local hospitality with a few glasses of orange juice. Ice cubes were dropped in to keep it cool.
Apparently stretchers came into consideration at the end of the trip as the whole ensemble were placed into Welsh quarantine.