SEPTEMBER 14 2019 LISTENER 45
W
ith the focus on the All Blacks
announcement, it may have escaped
your notice that Kiwi athletes in a
range of disciplines have been adding to our
great sporting legacy.
At the World Rowing Championships in
Austria, Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler
won gold in the women’s pair, as did Zoe
McBride and Jackie Kiddle in the lightweight
women’s double sculls and Brooke Dono-
ghue and Olivia Loe in the women’s double
sculls. Prendergast and Gowler were also in
the women’s eight who won a first-ever world
championship.
Dunedin schoolgirl Erika Fairweather won
the 200m freestyle and came fourth in the
400m at the World Junior Swimming Champi-
onships in Budapest.
Sailors Peter Burling and Blair Tuke won
gold in the 49er class at the Olympic test
event in Tokyo. This augurs well: they won the
corresponding event in 2015 and went on to
take the gold medal at the following year’s
Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Reigning world champion Tom Walsh won
the shot-put at the Diamond League meet in
Paris with a throw of 22.44m. Only one other
competitor cleared 22m. Walsh’s winning
throw at the 2017 World Championships was
22.03m.
Canoeist Lisa Carrington continues to
bestride her sport like a colossus, winning
gold in the K1 200m and K1 500m at the World
Championships in Hungary. She has now won
17 world championship medals, including
10 golds, to go with her two Olympic gold
medals.
And in Colombo, the Black Caps over-
came their World Cup heartbreak and
defeat in the preceding test to crush
Sri Lanka by an innings and 65
runs. Opening bowlers Trent
Boult and Tim Southee both
reached the 250-test-wicket
milestone; the only New Zealanders to
have taken more are Daniel Vettori (361)
and Sir Richard Hadlee (431). Mean-
while, opening batsman Tom Latham
and wicketkeeper-batsman BJ Watling
continued their stealthy but steady pro-
gress towards becoming New Zealand
cricketing greats by scoring their 10th
and seventh test centuries respectively.World beaters
Kiwi athletes are on
top in an impressive
array of sports.
GE
TT
Y
IM
AG
ESgenerally the case, the selectors copped
it coming and going: for being cavalier
and for not being bold enough; for
putting too much emphasis on experi-
ence and for jettisoning a gnarled
veteran; for bringing back Ryan
Crotty, who hadn’t played for two
months because of a broken thumb,
and for not fast-tracking Liam Squire,
who has also played little rugby this
year, back into the team.
Squire’s absence prompted sug-gestions that the All Blacks loose
forwards lack size, physical presence
and the intimidation factor. Coach
Steve Hansen didn’t entirely disa-
gree: “It’s a perception that we’ve
always had a player like Jerry Col-
lins, a Jerome Kaino ... even Liam
Squire got chucked into that mould
of big grizzly bears. We probably
don’t have one as such but I think
Luke [Jacobson] will develop into
that type of player.”
Jacobson, a former New Zealand
under-20 captain and the best
blindside flanker on show in this
year’s Super Rugby tournament, is
known to teammates as “Concrete
Shoulders” because of his punish-
ing defence. And, according to the
All Blacks website – and if we can’t
trust it in these matters, what can we
trust? – he’s the same size as the late,
lamented Collins to the very centime-
tre and kilogram: 1.91m, 107kg. l“Concrete
shoulders”: young
blindside flanker
Luke Jacobson.Gold haul: Grace
Prendergast and
Kerri Gowler.