Webster gets lift from second win
Sam Webster found the perfect balance of mind and body in the Anna Meares Velodrome on Saturday.
The Kiwi track cyclist won his second gold medal of the Commonwealth Games in the men’s sprint, defending his title from four years ago in Glasgow as he and his team sprint team-mates did on Thursday night.
Saturday’s win was special for Webster, not only for the achievement of claiming his seventh Commonwealth Games medal (four golds, two silvers, one bronze), second only to Gary Anderson in terms of medals, who had eight (three golds, three silvers, two bronze).
‘‘It’s amazing, it’s what we love doing, coming here to race our bikes. We’re competitive people, so we love to win.’’
The day got off in typical Webster fashion in qualifying when he was only 12th fastest for the flying 200 metres with a time of 9.809.
‘‘To climb the ladder, from 12th to first, is something I have done a lot of times.
‘‘That match racing is where I’m very strong, so I knew that I had to execute my flying 200m as best I could. I think there is a lot of room I could optimise in that and it’s been that way for a long time, but we haven’t quite found that thing that clicks in my flying 200m.’’
History might tell a different story about Webster’s day to what the reality actually was.
He fair cruised past Phillip Hindes in his 1/8 final, then accounted for his quarterfinal, semifinal and final opponents 2-0.
They were no slouches though, with silver medallist Jack Carlin of Scotland winning silver at the world championships last month.
Fellow Kiwi Ethan Mitchell made it to the quarterfinals, before losing 2-0 to Australian Jacob Schmid, which included losing the second race by the width of a tyre.
Their team-mate, Eddie Dawkins, was earlier bundled out in the 1/8 final stage, losing to Englishman Joe Truman.
Webster’s win took New Zealand’s medal haul on the track to nine. Emma Cumming won bronze in the 500m time trial earlier on Saturday night, while Campbell Stewart won silver in the scratch race shortly after Webster’s effort.