Alison Shanks yesterday became New Zealand’s first gold medallist at the Delhi Commonwealth Games with a commanding performance in her specialty event, the 3000m individual pursuit.
The Otago rider, who is a former world title-holder in the individual pursuit, outclassed Wendy Houvenaghel of Northern Ireland in the gold medal ride-off. Their meeting was a replay of their race in the world championship final last year.
It was a good final day at the velodrome for New Zealand because Sam Webster, Eddie Dawkins and Ethan Mitchell won the silver medal in the men’s team sprint. Shanks, 27, rode a controlled race and took the lead after about 1000m. From then she pulled away inexorably. Her winning time of 3min 30.875ss was her best for more than a year, though she said that in a final the time became irrelevant.
The victory continues a fine tradition for New Zealand in the women’s individual pursuit - Sarah Ulmer won the gold medal in the same event in 1998 and 2002. Shanks was understandably elated afterwards. She said the race had gone to plan.
“I just went out there to ride my own race for the first five or six laps. The race is not won in the first kilo. You have to make sure you have enough left at the finish,” she said. The individual pursuit will not be held at the London Olympics in 2012, and Shanks said this gave her further motivation to do well in Delhi.
“I’m gutted that it’s not on the Olympic programme, so I wanted to sign off with a win here.” Shanks, a former representative netballer who decided to dedicate herself to cycling, was fourth in the individual pursuit in Melbourne four years ago, but looked a class apart today. She finished nearly 1½ seconds ahead of the Northern Irishwoman. She said it was a buzz to win New Zealand’s first gold medal and a relief to have been able to perform on the day.
Fellow New Zealander Jaime Nielsen just missed the bronze, losing the third place ride-off to Tara Whiten of Canada. The medals were presented by New Zealand Governor-General Sir Anand Satyanand.
In the men’s team sprint, the New Zealanders qualified second and pushed Australia very close in the final. The flying Kiwis were shaded by the super-strong Australian team, but there wasn’t much in the times. The New Zealanders did 44.239s to the Australians’ 43.772s, but after two of the three laps the race was on a knife edge. There was some concern in the New Zealand camp when Webster had a tyre blowout just after he had finished his stint at the front. He crashed to the boards and suffered painful cuts and bruising.
In the 15km men’s scratch race, Australian Cameron Myer won his third gold medal of the games. New Zealander Marc Ryan finished strongly for fifth and Shane Archbold was further down the field.
The New Zealand track cycling squad won nine medals in Delhi, equalling their record haul, set in Auckland in 1990.
