Joelle King was the New Zealand squash teams special hero this evening
The 21-year-old from Cambridge won back-to-back matches to help New Zealand through to the womens doubles and mixed doubles finals.
After her outstanding play in the singles, when she narrowly missed a place in the semi-finals, despite a seeding of only 12th, King was regarded as one of the form players in the New Zealand team.
She has had to cope with a heavy workload in Delhi, never more so than today.
In the womens doubles semi-final, she and Jaclyn Hawkes fought back from a game down to beat the English pair of Jenny Duncalf and Laura Lengthorn-Massaro 5-11, 11-5, 11-6.
King just had time to rush to the back of the stand to change her shirt before she was back on court, paired with Wellingtonian Martin Knight in the mixed doubles semi-final against the third-seeded Malaysian pair of Ong Bong Hee and Nicol David, who is the No 1 ranked played in the world.
The New Zealanders got on top at the start and never relented. King, certainly well warmed up, was firing on all cylinders and Knight raised his game. The result: an 11-7, 11-10 upset to New Zealand.
Joelle played out of her tree, said New Zealand assistant coach Dave Clarke. It was important that after the good win in the doubles, she stayed up, rather than allow reaction to set in. So it was probably good she was back on court so quickly.
Were really wrapt to have two pairs in the final. The players are really competing well.
In the womens doubles, King and Hawkes play Australians Amelia Pittock and Lisa Camallerri for the gold medal tomorrow. In the mixed final, King and Knight face either the Australian or English combination tomorrow.
Tweet Share