Commonwealth Games

[Rich Taff]

Start this week. There are the big rivalries to look forward to, but I think the biggest question on everyone's lips is...

...Will Yorkshire beat Australia in the medals table again?

 

[LittleGuy]

SimonG will be foaming at the mouth at this expression of colonial Imperialism, particularly since the games do not feature a Soccer competition.

 

[james5000]

Start this week. There are the big rivalries to look forward to, but I think the biggest question on everyone's lips is...

...Will Yorkshire beat Australia in the medals table again?

Aussie will dominate your ass once again, they only won by 40 golds last time. Yorkshire sucks

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Agreed, Lancashire is numero uno.

 

[ratsapprentice]

Agreed, Lancashire is numero uno.

Ahem...

 

[TRF_heineken]

Apparently they got Oscar Pistorius to be the starting pistol for the track events...

 

[kiwicon]

Aussie will dominate your ass once again, they only won by 40 golds last time. Yorkshire sucks

Yip, they got twice as many gold's as we go total <_<

We (NZ) are ranked 11th.. hopefully we can get into the top 10 this time.. Valerie Adams is always good for a gold 'touch wood'..

 

[Rich Taff]

Yip, they got twice as many gold's as we go total <_<

We (NZ) are ranked 11th.. hopefully we can get into the top 10 this time.. Valerie Adams is always good for a gold 'touch wood'..

Commentators curse!

 

[Darwin]

Yip, they got twice as many gold's as we go total <_<

We (NZ) are ranked 11th.. hopefully we can get into the top 10 this time.. Valerie Adams is always good for a gold 'touch wood'..

I would expect we will get a lot higher on the medal table this time. The 2010 Commonwealth Games were very disappointing for NZ in terms of gold medals. We just kept getting 2nd. We ended up with 6 gold medals, 8 bronze, and 22 silver medal. In terms of the total number of medals won it was a pretty successful games for us (36 medals - 5th highest overall), but 'success' at Commonwealth (and Olympic) games seems to judged almost solely in terms of the number of golds....

I'm predicting we will get into the double figures in terms of gold medals these Games. We should get a few golds in cycling and athletics, and we have strong gold medal contenders in swimming, triathlon, weightlifting, squash and netball, and will certainly be favourites in the 7's again.

I'm not usually a big cycling fan, but it will probably be the highlight of the games. Australia completely dominated at the last Commonwealth Games in cylcing, but Great Britain were the dominant force at the Olympics. Obviously England, Scotland and Wales will individually be weaker the Great Britain, but they clearly have plenty of quality cyclists! New Zealand too probably have their strongest Commonwealth Games cycling squad ever, so there should be some fascinating contests...

Commentators curse!

If Valerie Adams doesn't win gold it will arguably be the biggest upset of the Games....

 

[Rich Taff]

I would expect we will get a lot higher on the medal table this time. The 2010 Commonwealth Games were very disappointing for NZ in terms of gold medals. We just kept getting 2nd. We ended up with 6 gold medals, 8 bronze, and 22 silver medal. In terms of the total number of medals won it was a pretty successful games for us (36 medals - 5th highest overall), but 'success' at Commonwealth (and Olympic) games seems to judged almost solely in terms of the number of golds....

I'm predicting we will get into the double figures in terms of gold medals these Games. We should get a few golds in cycling and athletics, and we have strong gold medal contenders in swimming, triathlon, weightlifting, squash and netball, and will certainly be favourites in the 7's again.

I'm not usually a big cycling fan, but it will probably be the highlight of the games. Australia completely dominated at the last Commonwealth Games in cylcing, but Great Britain were the dominant force at the Olympics. Obviously England, Scotland and Wales will individually be weaker the Great Britain, but they clearly have plenty of quality cyclists! New Zealand too probably have their strongest Commonwealth Games cycling squad ever, so there should be some fascinating contests...



If Valerie Adams doesn't win gold it will arguably be the biggest upset of the Games....

Yeah, I agree. Will definitely be looking forward to the cycling more than pretty much every other sport.

Really looking forward to the Women's Omnium Eliminiation race. It was the most entertaining, edge-of-the-seat thing I saw at the entire Olympics. Have to say I'll be cheering on Laura Trott in it, even if she's just British, not Welsh

 

[TRF_heineken]

 

[james5000]

Men's Shot put is the event i am most looking foward to at these games

I'm a big fan of Jacko Gill and I am hoping he can turn it up at these games. Tom Walsh another kiwi is probably the favourite at this stage being ranked number 1 coming in to the games.

Jacko Gill is a physical phenomenon at only 19 years old he is already one of the stronger blokes on the world scene, but its his explosiveness and speed which is his greatest attribute. He can run 100m under 12 seconds and has vertical leap of over 40 inches.

Tom Walsh has improved so much in the last 12 months its hard to believe he's not on some kind of performance enhancing drug. He's also one of the relatively physically weakest competitors at world level but his technique more than makes up for his physical short comings. I have heard a world leading shot put coach suggest that if you gave Jacko Gill Tom Walsh's technique he'd shatter the world record and I'd probably agree.

I have read Jacko Gill is a real introvert and does most of his training and physical conditioning without a coach. I hope if that is true that it doesn't effect his progress in the future because I reckon he could potentially be our greatest athlete.

 

[iINDOMINUSxx]

yeah i bet no-one knew i was from star trek

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

I see Canada moved past us again...

If we can beat Canada and NZ these games I'd be happy.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

I see Canada moved past us again...

If we can beat Canada and NZ these games I'd be happy.

SA losing ground after being 4rth for most of the day with India and NZ passing us as well... Chad will have to swim hard and hopefully we pick up a few more in lawn bowls as well.

 

[james5000]

I see Canada moved past us again...

If we can beat Canada and NZ these games I'd be happy.

Canada are always pretty strong a top 3 or 4 team, you will have to go pretty well to beat them.

Still might beat NZ, but we've got a couple more medal hopefuls. We've done pretty good so far tbh. Even if we did lose the 7's.

11+ golds is very decent for us

 

[kiwicon]

NZ upto 5th... watch out Scotland your next

 

[SimonG]

SimonG will be foaming at the mouth at this expression of colonial Imperialism, particularly since the games do not feature a Soccer competition.

hahaha...actually I'm not an opponent of colonising (westernizing) uncivilised lands...had the British flooded into India in huge numbers the way they did to other nations in the Empire it most likely wouldn't be underdeveloped and backward as it still is today (but that's another discussion).

The issue I have with the games is the value of medals...swimming for instance. GB had a fantastic Olympics in London except for the swimming where there were no golds...here there are 25. How many of these would translate to world or Olympic competition?

Rugby is pretty much a commonwealth sport (bar southwest France) so the winner of the 7s is the best there is....but I can't think of too many other sports where this would apply...cricket would be if it was played here too.

The competition and atmosphere has been fantastic and the Scots have done a fine job (Glasgow's three football stadiums have been great hosts) ....it's just the value of the medals in most competitions that leave question marks. A world record for instance would remove any doubt.

 

[ratsapprentice]

The issue I have with the games is the value of medals...swimming for instance. GB had a fantastic Olympics in London except for the swimming where there were no golds...here there are 25. How many of these would translate to world or Olympic competition?

Rugby is pretty much a commonwealth sport (bar southwest France) so the winner of the 7s is the best there is....but I can't think of too many other sports where this would apply...cricket would be if it was played here too.

What a retarded criticism.

You do realise the olympic sports do actually happen outside of the olympics?... They don't just rock up every four years.
NH players don't win the 6N and then say "well... it's not the RWC - so I don't care".

Commonwealth gold medalists are just that - nothing more and nothing less - no-one is claiming that it's a higher honor than the equivalent Olympic award.

 

[William18]

Exactly.

We get the "it's just a B competition" all the time in New Zealand. In some events this is certainly the case but that doesn't mean it isn't worthwhile. I went to watch the Wellington Club rugby final on the weekend and that wasn't a very strong standard.