Jeffcoat ‘beyond grateful’ for gold medal
ANDREW Jeffcoat’s sudden emergence in Birmingham has taken him all the way to the top step of the podium.
The unheralded swimmer completed a startling rise by winning the 50m backstroke final, claiming New Zealand’s fifth gold medal in the pool at these Games.
Jeffcoat started out strongly and led the whole way to break the New Zealand record for the second time in Birmingham, winning in 24.65sec.
South African Pieter Coetze, who won gold in the 100m backstroke earlier these Games, was second with Javier Acevedo, of Canada, taking bronze, his third.
‘‘I’m pretty happy to be here. It’s awesome to be able to get up after the 100 the other day — I was pretty disappointed to only get fourth. So to be here and be able to step up, I’m very proud of myself,’’ Jeffcoat said.
‘‘It’s something you dream of. You wake up every day for moments like that. There’s not a lot that I can say, really — you can’t really put it into words. It’s a special feeling. Probably the best feeling I’ve ever had. I’m just beyond grateful.’’
Jeffcoat is a relative stranger at this level, having competed at his first longcourse championships in June.
The 23yearold finished 13th in the 50m backstroke in Hungary but, with the best backstroke exponents belonging to the United States and continenworld tal Europe, he was always primed to break through at his debut Commonwealth Games.
That breakthrough first came in the 100m backstroke, where Jeffcoat was unfortunate to finish fourth, missing the podium by only 0.07sec.
And it continued in the earlier stages of the 50m discipline, qualifying as the secondfastest swimmer while winning his heat in 25.04sec.
Jeffcoat went even quicker in yesterday’s semifinals, stopping the clock in a new personalbest and nationalrecord time of 24.82sec, winning the race ahead of Australia’s Bradley Woodward.
That mark was again the second fastest of all competitors, trailing as he did in the heats only South African Pieter Coetze, this time by 0.01sec.
Jeffcoat, from the small Coromandel town of Colville, will have little time to celebrate this result, set to complete what has turned into a stunning Games with the 200m backstroke.