Big Gear Equals Bronze for Southland cyclists.
Just like the Kiwi Paralympic tandem girls Phillipa Gray and Laura Thompson the New Zealand medal tally is rolling along with a head of steam. The Southland duo has this morning (GMT) bagged New Zealand’s third medal at the London 2012 games, securing bronze in the Women’s B 1km time trial.
The girls finished just two hundredths of a second ahead of the fourth placed pair from Great Britain, and behind two dominant crews. Australia claimed gold in 1:08.91, Great Britan snared silver in 1:09.46 with Gray and Thompson in 1:11.24.
Coach Brendon Cameron chose to adopt a larger gear for the race and judging by the result the decision was spot on, as the tandem two powered down the final 500 metres as their competitors petered out.“We know our 500 is really good but at the time you've got no idea how fast you’re going, whether you’re creeping or flying so you just have to give it all you’ve got and hope it’s enough,” said Thompson.
There wasn’t much time for talking as they cranked up the pace down the back half of the race, with Thompson at the helm it was a case of going for broke. “I just heard her [Phillipa] squeal when she looked up and saw we got the bronze”. “That’s all I needed to see and I was like YES!” yelled a delighted Gray.
This medal is what both riders and Coach have described as the icing on the cake, given this is the shorter race and not their key event. “We knew gold and silver were out of our league; they’ve been out of our league for a couple of years really, and we’re not kilo riders but we knew the bronze medal was a possibility. There were three tandems out there that could have taken it, so it pretty much came down to those last milliseconds,” Gray explained.
The pair will be back out on Sunday in their favoured 3000m Pursuit with a real chance of climbing further up the dais.
Earlier today there was more delight for Pascoe in the Pool, setting and new Paralympic Record in the 50 meter freestyle in 28:41. Before her arch rival from Canada went even better in 28:21 in the following heat. This has made for a mouth-watering match up in the final later tonight [gmt]
Mary Fisher claimed second and an Oceania Record in the S11 Women’s 100 meter Freestyle in a time of 1:12.01 which sees her through to tonight’s final, while Anie Kelly – Costello in the same heat finished 5th place 1:23.10.
13 year old Nakita Howarth missed her final finishing 6th in 40:94 in the S7 women’s Butterfly.
While Daniel Holt had to settle for 5th place in the S13 men’s 100 butterfly, in 1:02.77 both miss out on their respective finals.
Danny McBride rowed into fourth in the heat at Eaton Dorney in the ASM1x Men’s single sculls which sees the Waikato forestry worker headed for the Repecharge tomorrow.