2014 Commonwealth Games: Villumsen grabs significant victory for New Zealand

Female cyclist’s gold becomes Kiwis’ overall 600th medal in mega event.

GLASGOW: Linda Villumsen claimed an historic 600th Commonwealth Games medal for New Zealand in Glasgow on Thursday as she raced to gold in the women’s cycling individual time trial.

New Zealand becomes the fourth Commonwealth Games Association to reach that total after Australia, England and Canada.

Villumsen was able to banish the memory of New Dehli, where she had to settle for silver four years ago, to finish in a time of 42 minutes 25.46 seconds over the 29.6km course.

“It is just incredible; it’s something I’ve worked hard for over the last four years now,” said the 29-year-old, who was second in last year’s world championships.

“I’m always nearly there every year at the Olympics or the world championships, but always missed. I came here thinking that it could happen again but today [Thursday] finally everything worked out from start to finish so I’m really happy.”

England’s Emma Pooley, who was recently crowned the British national champion for a third time, finished in second place just six seconds behind Villumsen.

Australia’s Katrin Garfoot took the bronze with host nation Scotland’s Katie Archibald, a world champion on the track, finishing in fifth.

Villumsen, who represented Denmark at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing before gaining New Zealand citizenship in 2009, has been consistently winning medals on the road for the past five years and was among the favourites to claim the women’s title.

David loses in Glasgow squash doubles

Women’s squash singles champion Nicol David’s Commonwealth Games is over after she and doubles partner Low Wee Wern were knocked out by Alison Waters and Emma Beddoes of England in the quarter-final stage.

The Malaysian pair, beaten in one of their pool matches by Indian’s Dipika Pallikal and Joshana Chinappa, fell to a narrow 11-10, 11-8 loss to the third seeds.

“It was close, the first game could have gone either way,” said David. “It’s just a shame we lost the first game and couldn’t turn it around.”

Meanwhile, top seeds Laura Massaro and Jenny Duncalf reached the semi-finals of the women’s squash with a 2-0 win over Australia’s Lisa Camilleri and Donna Urquhart.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 1^st, 2014.

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