Highs and lows
The Games were a mix of triumph and disaster.
New Zealand enjoyed so much success at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games that it was hard to pick a highlight. The Black Ferns’ victory in the women’s rugby sevens final was probably the most dramatic moment, but you were left with the feeling that they were gifted the gold medal by their opponents. I’d nominate the Black Sticks’ gold-medal win, first because of the emphatic nature of their victory – they thumped the hosts, their nemesis, 4-1 – and second because it was a just reward for the great sporting virtue of persistence. The gold medal was a long time coming, with many near misses and crushing disappointments along the way.
In contrast, the Silver Ferns’ campaign was nothing short of calamitous. They lost to four different opponents, failed to make the final for the first time since netball was introduced to the Commonwealth Games in 1998 and finished out of the medals altogether. Their inability to compete with great rival Australia is becoming embarrassing and threatens to undermine a wonderful legacy.
Their 16-point loss to the Diamonds in the final in Glasgow four years ago was regarded as a humiliation. Having required a generous dollop of good fortune to make the semifinals on the Gold Coast, the Ferns were given a 21-point hiding by the Diamonds, who went on to lose to England in the final.
TVNZ copped some flak for its Games coverage, and certainly the frequency of advertising breaks and the number of ads stuffed into them at times verged on intolerable. When Eliza McCartney was competing in the pole vault, the ratio of ads to her vaults must have been north of 20:1. Kudos, however, to reporter Abby Wilson for soldiering on despite the heart-stopping excitement of the men’s road cycling: “My heart,” she informed us, “has only just stopped beating.”