print


Rugby Sevens

The All Blacks and Black Ferns Sevens have finished 2019 on a high, taking out the Cape Town Sevens.

The women’s team defeated rivals Australia 17-7 in their final with the All Blacks Sevens making it a New Zealand clean sweep by beating hosts South Africa 7-5 in their final.

The Black Ferns Sevens top the women’s standings with the men's side also sitting top of the table, tied with South Africa.

The Black Ferns Sevens went out to a 12-0 halftime lead through tries to Kelly Brazier and Ruby Tui before Australia hit back at the start of the second half to close the gap to five.

Tui then made it a double, scoring a second try with two minutes remaining to secure the win.

In their match the All Blacks Sevens had to fight back after conceding a try to the hosts.

Ngarohi McGarvey-Black scored the match-winner with two minutes remaining as New Zealand held on for the win.

 GettyImages 1188835824

 

Cycling

It was mission accomplished for the New Zealand track cycling team who completed their Tissot UCI Worlds Cup campaign after collecting seven medals in Brisbane.

The New Zealanders won gold in the men’s omnium, silver in the men’s and women’s team pursuit, men’s sprint and the men’s Madison, as well as bronze in the men’s team sprint and women’s omnium.

Limiting their focus to three of the six world cup competitions in Hong Kong, Cambridge and Brisbane, New Zealand has ticked all the boxes to secure starts in all key events for February’s world championships in Germany.

Cycling New Zealand high performance director, Martin Barras said he was pleased with performances in the key Olympic events and they can now plan the build-up to the world championships and from that point secure qualification for the Tokyo Olympics.

“Overall I am delighted with the performances in our core endurance events, particularly team pursuit for both men and women, who have both produced near world record rides from the women in Cambridge and the men in Brisbane,” said Barras.

The New Zealand team return home on Monday where they have a break over Christmas before returning to training in the New Year.

GettyImages 1193881435

 

Diving

Auckland diver Elizabeth Cui has won the Oceania Diving Champs in Auckland to qualify a spot for New Zealand at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The 22-year-old took first place in the 3m springboard event at Auckland’s Westwave Pool.

“I’m feeling over the moon, I was in my own little bubble and just focussed on each dive and executing it as best I could.

“It’s a huge weight off my shoulders I’m really happy to do that for New Zealand and my family’s here watching which is really special.”

 

Snowsports

New Zealand freeskier Margaux Hackett has achieved the best result amongst New Zealand athletes at the Air + Style World Cup in Beijing, finishing in fourth place.

GettyImages 1188727376

“I’m super happy with my fourth place!” said Margaux. It is a career-best result for the 20-year-old from Queenstown.

Landing a switch right misty 900 on jump one and left misty 720 safety on run two, Margaux was sitting in third place coming into the final jump. She couldn’t get her third trick down clean and when Silvia Bertagna of Italy came through with a tidy switch left 540 mute the Kiwi was pushed back in to fourth place.

Johanne Killi (NOR) took the win, with Giulia Tanno (SUI) in second.

Zoi Sadowski-Synnott was in action in the women’s snowboard. Sadowski-Synnott was in solid form during the qualifying rounds, finishing second in her heat but couldn’t hold on to her landings for her three jumps on finals night and finished in eighth.


Tweet Share