Para athletes add to the magic

By Roger Childs

It was a brilliant idea to include the competition for Para-Sport in with the rest of the Commonwealth Games. The crowds love it and there is huge respect for these athletes who perform brilliantly against the odds.

Last night our amazing swimmer Sophie Pascoe, minus a foot, picked up the gold in the 50m breaststroke. She was tiring towards the end, but did enough to get her second first place.

Then in the main stadium Holly Robinson seemed to have gold sewn up in the para-javelin.

Her first throw was a world record, but on her final throw another Holly, (Arnold), from Wales went further.

The medal ceremony was great and it was hard not to feel emotional when possibility the finest of all national anthems Land of our Fathers resounded around the stadium.

A golden day for the Kiwis

Sophie picked up her second gold and Tom Walsh duly delivered in the shot put. Meanwhile on the squash court, top seed,

Joelle King had a surprisingly tough battle against Englishwoman Sarah-Jane Perry. After being two sets up she was taken to a fifth. King raced out to a 5-0 lead, but Perry came back to square it at 8-8.Then in a lapse of concentration, Perry didn’t go through with a shot that was there for the taking and King edged ahead 9-8.

In the end, the Kiwi scrambled home in a match which thrilled the packed crowd seated on three sides of the squash cage 16-14, 11-8, 6-11, 11-13, 11-8.

A big man break the Games record

I go with the flow, I don’t want to disturb the peace and everything like that. David Liti

New Zealand’s fourth gold of the day was won by the 166kg David Liti. What he lifts is stupendous.

He lifted 229kg on his last attempt in the clean and jerk, and this added to his 174kg in the snatch gave him the victory in the 105+ kg division of the weight lifting.

So Monday April 9 was a golden one for New Zealand. Four of the big ones in a single day’s competition will be hard to beat.