Performance of the day
In those breathless moments after a Commonwealth Games final, an athlete can cycle through a range of emotions in a matter of seconds.
So it was for Erika Fairweather after she won silver – and New Zealand’s first medal of the Glasgow Games – in the 400m freestyle. It was the first Commonwealth or Olympic medal of her career, and she has a lung-busting five more chances to add to her haul in Glasgow.
“I’m super happy to walk away with the silver medal tonight,” the 22-year-old told Sky Sport. “I mean, I’m not super happy with the performance. Overall, I think the outcome was really great. But the performance wasn’t put together very well, so I’ll guess I’ll go back to my coach and reassess.
“Still, you can’t be mad when you come away with that. I was gutted last time when I never won a medal, so this is super special.” The Dunedin swimmer was fourth in the same event in Birmingham four years ago.
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It was a momentous final for New Zealand swimming, with three Kiwis in the field of eight. Caitlin Deans, making her Games debut, finished sixth, while Eve Thomas was eighth.
Fairweather was the fastest qualifier after the morning’s heats, with no returning medallists from four years ago in the field.
Swimming in the lane next to Australian Lani Pallister, she breathed towards her rival on every lap, but the gap between them grew through the second half of the race. Pallister touched the wall in a Games record time of 3m 59.56s, with Fairweather 1.96s behind her.
Clutching her silver medal, Fairweather shared an embrace with her little sister in the crowd.
“It’s so special. I’ve got family in the crowd tonight and all our support staff and all the people who’ve done a lot for me over the journey. So, it’s lovely to be able to share this moment with them,” she told Sky Sport.
“This is a stepping stone towards LA [2028 Olympics]. We always thought of it as that, so it’s just one step in the journey.”
She has a chance to make it two medals from two tomorrow morning in the 200m freestyle.
She said it
“My start this morning was not the best. She was a bit slow off the blocks. I watched the replay a few times and my feet as still on there and the girls are halfway through the air. A bit faster tonight, just tightening and fine tuning all those little details” – Hazel Ouwehand, improving her time in the 50m butterfly semifinals to be third-fastest for tonight’s final.
The good news
New Zealand has a 100 percent success rate in qualifying swimmers for finals so far.
Both OIympian Hazel Ouwehand and world junior champion Zoe Pedersen flew into the final of the 50m butterfly – finishing second and fourth respectively in their semifinal.
The New Zealand bowls pair of Katelyn Inch and Selina Goddard have had the perfect start with two wins from two – but in contrasting fashions. After surviving a thriller with a tie-break win over Kenya on Goddard’s 32nd birthday, the pair comfortably dispatched Botswana 9-3, 8-2 overnight.
As the Silver Ferns try to focus on the court rather than the furore around the future of domestic netball back home, there was some bright news ahead of their first game against Scotland tonight. Catherine Hall and Kimiora Poi have been medically cleared to play at the Games, with Hall returning two months after foot surgery, and Poi, recovering from the calf injury that kept her out of much of the ANZ Premiership.
What the?
Australian swimmers who win medals in Glasgow will receive handsome bonuses from the nation’s richest person. But they’ve reportedly been banned from publicly thanking Gina Rinehart.
The mining billionaire has pledged to deposit A$20,000 directly into the bank accounts of any of the 60 Dolphins who win Commonwealth gold – plus an extra A$10,000 if they break a world record. But according to the Sydney Morning Herald, the athletes have been told by Commonwealth Games Australia not to thank Rinehart, the swim team’s patron, in media interviews.
The head of Hancock Prospecting could be dipping deep into her pockets – the Dolphins claimed 25 golds in Birmingham four years ago. They’ve already won six golds from the opening night at the pool.
Men in the medals
The award for most heartwarming moment of day one goes to Lewis Clareburt, who met his newborn nephew, Arthur, for the first time, just moments after winning silver in the 200m individual medley.
Little Artie won’t remember the moment, but he’ll always have Finnie, the unicorn mascot of these Games, gifted to him by his uncle.
It capped a special night for Clareburt, who charged home on the freestyle leg to almost overhaul hometown gold medallist Duncan Scott, but still claimed a New Zealand record and personal best of 1m 56.77s.
Who’s up next
NETBALL: Silver Ferns vs Scotland – Sat 8pm
GYMNASTICS: Team competition – Sat 9pm, finals Sun 2.45am
3×3 BASKETBALL: New Zealand vs Papua New Guinea, Sat 9pm; vs Tonga, Sun 1.30am; vs England, Sun 6am.
SWIMMING: Amber George, Savannah-Eve Martin, 100m backstroke heats, Sat 10.10pm, semifinal, Sun 6.15am; Erika Fairweather, 200m freestyle heat, Sat 9.30pm, final Sun 6.40am; 4x100m freestyle mixed relay heat, Sat 11.20pm, final, Sun 8.10am. Zoe Pedersen, Hazel Ouwehand, 50m butterfly final, Sun 6.55am.
BOWLS: Kerrin Wheeler, Sonya Woodrow (and directors Colin Wheeler and Kimberly Carraher), mixed para lawn bowls pairs, Sat 11.45pm, Sun 7.40am; Selina Goddard and Katelyn Inch, women’s pairs, Sun 2am.
