Swimming: Sisters in sync for bronze

Lisa and Nina Daniels during their synchronised swimming duet free routine. Picture / Reuters

Unheralded sisters snatched bronze for New Zealand in the synchronised swimming pool yesterday.

Canada-based Lisa and Nina Daniels picked up a bronze in the duet free routine, maintaining their position on the dais after a close opening round of competition in the technical routine on Saturday.

The sisters, who developed their medal-winning skills by training with the Canadian Olympic team in Toronto before basing themselves in Dunedin, were ecstatic about their success. But they had an agonising wait to see if they had done enough to pick up the bronze ahead of the English team.

"When we realised we had a medal we were speechless, then we started crying and jumping around," Nina Daniels said.

Using a routine based on a snake theme they had devised a year ago but had perfected only in the last few days before the games started had been a trump card, she said.

While the sisters were celebrating, weightlifter Richard Patterson was in an enthralling spectacle at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre.

Patterson set a New Zealand record in the men's 77kg snatch when he pumped 135kg over his head, an effort that initially looked like it might leave him just short of medal contention.

With the sniff of a medal in his nostrils, Patterson nominated a New Zealand record snatch weight of 135kg, and a record lift of 166kg in the clean and jerk.

But he missed his second lift, then fell off the medal dais when his second try at 166kg proved a hurdle too far.