More cycling magic

For the second successive day the track cyclists provided the headlines for New Zealand.

Boosted by the cyclists noble efforts, New Zealand won a gold, two silvers and two bronzes on the second day of the games.

CYCLING

New Zealand interest at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome again centred around the mens sprinters, who added individual gold and bronze medals to the gold they won in the teams event on the first day.

With three riders having qualified for the individual quarter-finals, there were high hopes for medals, and as on the first day, when they won the team gold medal, the sprinters did not disappoint.

In the quarter-finals, Eddie Dawkins beat Englishman Matthew Crampton 2-0 and Sam Webster dealt just as decisively with Malaysian Mohd Awang. The third New Zealander, Matthew Archibald, found Australian Peter Lewis too slick and lost consecutive races.

The New Zealanders were paired against each other in one of the semi-finals.  Dawkins had many backers, but Aucklander Webster was really sharp and won consecutive races, one by a vast margin.

In the best-of-three final, he beat Olympic champion Jason Kenny of England 2-1. Webster, a bronze medallist in this event four years ago in Delhi, made no contest of the first race, was edged out in the second, and then timed his sprint to perfection to secure the gold in the third race.

Dawson was only marginally less imposing in inflicting successive defeats on Peter Lewis to sew up the sprint bronze medal.

In the mens individual pursuit, Marc Ryan was timed at 4min 22.511s, the fourth fastest, and earned himself a shot at a bronze medal. Other New Zealanders Patrick Bevin, 4min 26.909s, and Dylan Kennett, 4min 26.930s, were off the pace. Ryan duly outpaced beat Welshman Owain Doull to grab the bronze.

The womens individual pursuiters could not make an impression. Jaime Nielsen, 3min 34.342s, was closest and finished fifth, just missing a place among the medal races. Further down the list were Lauren Ellis, 3min 39.716s, and Georgia Williams, 3min 45.334s.

JUDO

New Zealand came away with two silver medals in the judo, to follow the bronze medal Darcina Manuel.

In the mens under-73kg division final, Adrian Leat fought gamely all the way, but had to bow in the end to Englishman Danny Williams. And in the womens under-70kg division final, Moira de Villiers was beaten by Englishwoman Megan Fletcher.

After Williams imposed an early waza-ari, Leat was always struggling to get back to level pegging.

It was tough from the beginning, Leat said. He came out strong and I was playing catch-up.

In the end I was trying to get that big one. He played his game well; he knew my strengths.

Leat nevertheless had a very good day, winning four bouts impressively to make the final.

De Villiers was up against an accomplished opponent in Fletcher, who looked strong and technically very efficient. After two minutes she scored an ippon, thereby ending the bout.

De Villiers was kicking herself afterwards. She felt it was a mistake of hers that had let in the Englishwoman. However, she did well to reach the final, scoring two good wins, including a really gruelling battle against her perennial rival, Australian Catherine Arscott.

There were two other New Zealand judokas in action. Mark Brewer won well over Leslie Philoe of the Seychelles. Then he ran into a dynamic young Canadian, Louis Krieber-Gagnon. The pair had a monumental battle that went down to penalties, with the New Zealander dipping out in the end.

In his repecharge bout, Brewer lost to Cypriot Robert Nicola after another torrid and close battle.

Surprisingly Ivica Pavlinic, the top seed in the under-81kg division, lost his first fight, to Canadian Jonah Burt. He got caught and was thrown early in the bout.

BOWLS

The New Zealand bowlers continued on their merry way.

The mens triple of Tony Grantham, Shannon McIlroy and Ali Forsyth, unbeaten after the first day, outclassed Zambians Bright Mwanza, Mweetwa Siamoongwa and George Chibwe 20-10. Later they were equally efficient against Canada, winning 20-16. It was 11-11 after eight ends, but at that point the New Zealanders applied the pedal and pulled away.

Jo Edwards, a strong contender for the womens singles crown, beat Niues Hinu Rereiti 21-8 and Malaysias Siti Admad 21-17. She looked well in control when she led Admad 11-2 after nine ends, but the Malaysian fought back and made it quite a tense tussle.

The womens four of Selina Goddard, Amy McIlroy, Val Smith and Mandy Boyd outplayed Zambians Evelyn Namutowe, Sophia Matipa, Eddah Mpezeni and Foster Banda 22-13, after racing to a 14-1 lead.

In the mens pairs, New Zealanders Richard Girvan and Blake Signal beat Zambians Harry Musonda and Christie Kapata 25-10.

In the para mixed pairs, David Stallard and Sue Curran  accounted for Canada 20-10, but were comprehensively beaten 23-6 by South Africa in the semi-final.

BOXING

New Zealand had mixed fortunes in the boxing ring.

Samoan-born super-heavyweight Patrick Mailata, only 19, struck a tough one in Australian Joseph Goodall and went down on points. Though he lost all three rounds, Mailata produced his best work in the third round.

Cantabrian Bowyn Morgan had a really tight contest with Scot Lewis Benson.

The New Zealander lost the first round decisively, won the second by the same margin (assisted by having a controversial knockdown ruled in his favour) and just got his nose in front in the deciding third round. Two judges gave the round to him, one to the Scot.

The third New Zealander in action was light-heavyweight David Nyika of Hamilton. He beat South African Luvuyo Sizani after the bout was halted in the second round.

SQUASH

The squash players found the going tougher today.

In the womens singles, Megan Craig ran into Malaysian legend Nicol David, the world No 1 since 2006. Craig fought hard, but went down 11-7, 11-6, 11-5.

The sole remaining New Zealander in the womens draw is Joelle King, the third seed, and King was stretched in dispatching Joshana Chinappa of India 11-3, 11-8, 8-11, 11-5.

In the mens singles, Martin Knight, seeded 13, found top Englishman James Willstrop, the second seed, too tough and went down 11-5, 11-5, 11-5. Campbell Grayson, the 12th seed, beat Zambian Kelvin Ndhlovu 11-4, 11-6, 11-4 to reach the quarter-finals.

SWIMMING

The New Zealand swimmers couldnt quite get among the medals at the pool.

Matthew Stanley looked sharp in his 200m freestyle heat and his 1min 47.16s (nearly half a second faster than Danyon Loader swam to win the gold medal in Atlanta in 1996) placed him fifth for the final. Among those who failed to progress were Mitchell Donaldson, 1min 49.76s, and Dylan Dunlop-Barrett, 1min 50.23s.

In the 200m freestyle final, Stanley was unable to match his morning swim and was timed at 1min 48.11s for seventh place.

Corey Main, who had swum so impressively to qualify for the 100m backstroke final in fifth place, was sixth in the final in 54.40s. The time matched his heat effort, but was slower than his semi-final.

The 4 x 100m freestyle relay the New Zealand quartet of Ewan Jackson, Steve Kent, Corey Main and Dunlop-Barrett recorded 3min 20.94s, which placed them sixth going into the final. Though they went marginally faster in the final 3min 19.88s they slipped back to seventh.

In the womens 100m freestyle S8 Nikita Howarth struggled and was fifth in 1min 21.50s. In the final, she was fifth again, this time in 1min 19.36s.

Breaststroke specialist Glenn Snyders, in his favoured 100m impressed in turning in the third-fastest heat time. Snyders, 27, was always in charge of his heat and recorded 1min 00.76s, which meant he was the third fastest of the 16 semi-finalists. The two ahead of him were Englishman Adam Peaty and Scot Ross Murdoch.

In the semi-finals, Snyders finished second in his heat and fourth overall with a time of 59.98s.

TABLE TENNIS

The New Zealand womens team, spearheaded by evergreen Li Chunli, scored its third successive win, beating Mauritius 3-0. Chunli overwhelmed Widaqad Gukhool 11-2, 11-7, 11-3, Karen Li beat Isabelle Chowree 11-3, 11-1, 11-7 and Karen Li and Yang Sun beat Gukhool and Yuen Wong 11-7, 9-11, 10-12, 11-8, 11-8.

Having won their section, the New Zealand women drew Trinidad and Tobago in post-section play and dealt with them summarily, winning 3-0. Chunli beat Catherine Spicer 11-3, 11-6, 11-5, Karen Li beat Rheann Chung 8-11, 11-2, 9-11, 11-5, 11-6 and Sun and Karen Li beat Ashley Quashie and Chung 11-9, 11-3, 11-5. They now meet India in the quarter-finals.

The New Zealand men bounced back from the heartbreaking loss to Wales on the opening day to beat Papua New Guinea 3-0.

Peter Jackson, back in the New Zealand team at the age of 49 after eight years absence, beat Hila Frank 11-1, 11-0, 11-4, John Cordue beat Boe Mea 11-3, 11-1, 11-8 and Cordue and Phillip Xiao eat Frank and David Loi 11-1, 14-12, 11-4.

In post-section play, New Zealand beat Barbados 3-0. Xiao beat Kevin Farley 11-4, 11-6, 3-11, 11-6, Tengteng Liu beat Trevor Farley 11-2, 11-3, 11-5 and Shane Laugesen and Xiao beat Mark Dowell and Farley 11-5, 11-3, 11-4.

The men now have a very tough assignment, having to take on top seeds Singapore in the quarter-finals.

WEIGHTLIFTING

Auckland weightlifter Phillipa Hale finished sixth of 12 starts in the womens 53kg section. In the snatch, Hale lifted 76kg, missed at 78kg and then succeeded with 79kg, which placed her fourth at that stage. In the clean and jerk she succeeded with 95kg, but then missed 96kg twice. Her total was 174kg. The gold went to Chika Amalaha of Nigeria, with 196kg.

Another Auckland lifter, Ianne Guinares, was below his best in the mens 62kg. Though Guinares entry total of 265kg earned him a start in the A section, he eventually finished below four lifters in the B section, and 12th overall.

Guinares snatched 109lkg and then missed 113kg twice. In the clean and jerk he failed at 137kg, got it second time around, then missed at 143kg. His total was 246kg, well behind the winner, Cypriot Dimitris Minasidis, who totalled 276kg.

NETBALL

The Silver Ferns netballers were given an almighty fright by Malawi in the opening match of their campaign.

The New Zealanders produced an error-prone display and required a late surge to squeak to a 50-47 victory.

With 11 minutes remaining the scores were locked at 39-39 and there was an increasing likelihood that Malawi might produce one of the biggest upsets in netball test history.

Coach Waimarama Taumaunu was unimpressed with her teams effort.

I was disappointed, she said. I thought there were too many errors and was disappointed in the number of offensive penalties. Those are things we need to tidy up.

Malawi built their strategy around the wonderful goal-shooting of lanky Mwai Kumwenda, who shot 38 goals from 39 attempts and proved a handful for New Zealand defenders Katrina Grant (playing her 50th test), Leana de Bruin and Casey Kopua.

For New Zealand, Maria Tutaia played half a game at goal attack and managed 12 goals from 15 attempts. Catherine Latu played the full 60 minutes at goal shoot and was unerringly accurate, with 30 from 31. However, Jodi Brown, who replaced Tutaia, struggled and managed just eight goals from 14 shots.

New Zealand led 14-13 at quarter-time. It was 25-25 at halftime and 37-35 to New Zealand at three-quarter-time.

HOCKEY

The New Zealand womens hockey team opened the floodgates on Trinidad and Tobago in their first match of the tournament, winning 14-0.

The match was nothing more than a canter for the Black Sticks, who nevertheless took advantage of their opponents weaknesses to give themselves a good workout and a confidence booster.

There were goals to Krystal Forgesson 4, Katie Glynn 3, Anita Punt 2, Emily Naylor, Rose Keddell, Sophie Cocks, Kayla Whitelock, Petrea Webster. New Zealand led 7-0 at halftime.

BADMINTON

The New Zealand mixed team came unstuck in a fiercely contest tie against Scotland that went late into the evening. After winning both their matches on the opening day, New Zealand felt they were in with a good chance against the home team, but the Scottish proved to be gritty opponents and won 5-0, though the score did not reflect the competitiveness of some matches. Kieran Merrilees beat Joe Wu 21-13, 21-17, Kirsty Gilmour beat Michelle Chan 21-15, 23-21, Robert Blair and Paul van Rietvelde beat Kevin Dennerly-Minturn and Oliver Leydon-Davis 23-21, 23-21, Imogen Banker and Kirsty Gilmour beat Anna Rankin and Madeleine Stapleton 21-4, 21-11 and Blair and Banker beat the Leydon-Davis pairing 21-8, 21-10.

SHOOTING

Commonwealth Games fullbore rifle pairs champions Mike Collings and John Snowden did not begin the defence of their title as they would have hoped.

Competing in the grandly titled Queens Prize event, they were 12th of 17 starters. Over 300 yards and 500 yards, Collings scored 49-48 and Snowden 50-49. Their total after two rounds with three to follow is 196. Two teams, from England and Australia, scored a perfect 200.