In a successful day of competition, New Zealand’s track cycling teams notched gold twice in an hour while Dame Sophie Pascoe secured her fifth Commonwealth Games gold medal.
New Zealand’s Commonwealth Games women’s track cycling sprint team, the men’s team pursuit, Dame Sophie Pascoe and triathlete Hayden Wilde.
Photo: Photosport
The New Zealand team are currently sitting in second on the medal table after a highly successful opening day at the Commonwealth Games – behind only Australia.
England sit in third place, Canada fourth and Scotland fifth.
Early this morning, New Zealand won its first Birmingham Commonwealth Games gold medal with the men’s team pursuit track cycling beating England’s team by nearly two seconds in their final.
The team of Aaron Gate, Jordan Kerby, Tom Sexton and Campbell Stewart set a Games record of 3min 47.575sec.
The women’s sprint team of Ellesse Andrews, Rebecca Petch and Olivia King followed that up with a sensational performance in their final, securing New Zealand’s second gold in an hour and finishing with a new Games record time of 47.425 seconds to beat Canada by half-a-second.
Earlier, the women’s team pursuit – down a rider after Ally Woollaston was injured in the Tour de France – took silver in the gold medal race against Australia.
Andrews replaced Woollaston, but eased off early in the gold medal race to save her energy for the team sprint soon after.
Australia dominated the final, beating Andrews, Bryony Botha, Michaela Drummond and Emily Shearman by nearly six seconds.
Meanwhile, the New Zealand men’s sprint team of Sam Webster, Sam Dakin and Bradley Knipe beat Canada to win bronze.
New Zealand’s men’s 4000m team pursuit won gold in their final, the team consists of Aaron Gate, Jordan Kerby, Tom Sexton and Campbell Stewart.
Photo: Photosport
Pascoe claims fifth career gold
In her sole event of the Games, Dame Sophie Pascoe won gold in the womens S9 100 metre freestyle with a time of 1:02.95 with Australia’s Emily Beecroft coming in second.
New Zealand’s Tupou Neiufi also qualified for the final, finishing in eighth 12 seconds behind Pascoe.
Dame Sophie said winning gold was overwhelming after a build-up that included a bout of Covid-19 and losing her Nana.
After picking up her fifth career Commonwealth Games gold medal, the 29-year-old said she was undecided about her future in the pool.
“If this was my last one then I gave it everything I had, if it’s not then, well then here come’s Paris, you know a bit more training to go. But I’m just so proud of myself for getting here, overcoming everything,” Dame Sophie said after the event.
Pascoe has now won a total of 20 medals across four Paralympian Games, including two golds, a silver and a bronze at the Tokyo Olympics last year.
Dame Sophie Pascoe of New Zealand celebrates her gold medal in the Women’s 100m Freestyle S9 Swimming medal ceremony at the Sandwell Aquatics Centre.
Photo: Photosport
In the women’s 200m freestyle, 18-year-old Erika Fairweather finished fifth in the final with Australia’s Ariarne Titmus taking the gold medal.
Mya Rasmussen was the only other New Zealander to reach a final, where she finished seventh in women’s 400m individual medley.
Wilde protests after missing out on gold
After his race took a controversial turn, New Zealand triathlete Hayden Wilde has lodged a protest over a 10-second time penalty which cost him the chance of gold in Birmingham.
After combining a strong swim and cycle, Wilde led Olympic silver medallist Alex Yee of England by 16 seconds going into the final five kilometre run.
However, he was penalised after unclipping his helmet before racking his bike at the final changeover, and had to stand down for 10 precious seconds in the penalty box as the pair entered the finishing straight level.
Yee won in 50 minutes 34 seconds, Wilde finished second in 50min 47sec and Australian Matthew Hauser took third, just three seconds behind Wilde.
New Zealand’s men’s individual triathlon Commonwealth Games 2022 silver medallist Hayden Wilde.
Photo: Photosport
A disappointed Wilde said afterwards that he’d done everything he could, and didn’t believe he should have been penalised.
Triathlon coach Hellemans said the New Zealand triathlon team was appealing the decision but a result was likely to be at least a month away.
Still only 24-years-old, Wilde has now won Olympic bronze and Commonwealth Games silver.
Wilde’s teammates, Dylan McCullough and Tayler Reid, finished seventh and eighth respectively.
In the women’s individual triathlon, Nicole Van Der Kaay finished 9th and Andrea Hewitt finished 18th.
Sevens teams make strong start
The Black Ferns Sevens made a strong start in their rugby sevens pool play, recording resounding 45-7 and 60-0 wins over Canada and Sri Lanka respectively.
In an unfortunate twist, Black Ferns Sevens star Portia Woodman suffered an ankle injury in the game against Canada which saw her rested for the Sri Lanka game and could spell an end to her play time at the Games.
Meanwhile, the All Blacks Sevens team also beat Sri Lanka in a convincing 63-5 win but required a grittier performance to overcome Samoa in a 19-17 win.
Tomorrow, both sides could be in with a chance of glory with the gold medal finals starting at 7.38pm.
Portia Woodman of New Zealand scores a Try v Canada in the Black Ferns Sevens’ opening match of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Photo: Photosport
What’s coming up at the Games
Both New Zealand’s men’s and women’s 3×3 basketball teams will continue their journey at the Games on Sunday morning, with the men set to face Trinidad and Tobago at 6.30am before the women play the British Virgin Islands straight after at 6.55am.
At 6.30am, New Zealand boxer Emile Richardson is scheduled to step into the ring against Desmond Cort Amsterdam of Guyana in a round of 16 middleweight bout.
New Zealand’s swimming team will get back into the pool tomorrow with standout medal hopeful Lewis Clareburt touted to push for a podium finish in the men’s 400m individual medley final at 7.49am.
The track cycling teams will also return to the velodrome to compete for medals on offer in a range of men’s and women’s scratch, tandem and time trial events.
All the lawn bolls action kicks off tomorrow evening at 7.30pm with Katelyn Inch representing New Zealand in the women’s singles.
Later on, the Black Sticks will take on Pakistan in their first pool match of the Games at 8pm before the lawn bowls men’s pair of Shannon McIlroy and Tony Grantham take on Scotland at 10.30pm.
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