How good it was to see Fiji win gold in the rugby sevens, a variant of the game that Fiji has led since its inception, and underline its dominance with a 43-7 annihilation of a finalist that had beaten New Zealand. How good that a small country so near to us in every way, a contributor of fine players to the All Blacks and several other international XVs, has its first Olympic gold medal in any sport. Gold, as New Zealand needs no reminding after this week, is an elusive prize.
That is why the achievement of Eric Murray and Hamish Bond yesterday was, once again, remarkable. The fact that they have won every event they have entered as a coxless pair for the past eight years was no guarantee of success. In sport there is never a guarantee. Bond and Murray's hard work and tenacity deserves to be honoured every time they cross the line ahead of all rivals. Gold at a second successive Olympics puts them up with the best of our Olympians of all time. Joining them by the time this appears may be Mahe Drysdale but it bears repeating, nothing is guaranteed.
Success is particularly sweet, though, when it comes to someone their country hardly knows, in a sport it hardly knows. Luuka Jones, competing in the canoe slalom at her third Olympics, surprised herself as much as anybody with a silver than could nearly have been gold. She hopes her success will help her put the sport here "on the map". With a new facility for it at Manukau, her example should inspire many to treat whitewater canoeing as more than just fun.
Gold continued to elude New Zealanders in track cycling at Rio yesterday. Team sprinters Eddie Dawkins, Sam Webster and Ethan Mitchell have shown that this county can produce athletes for explosive as well as endurance events. Our only track cycling gold at previous Olympics, Sarah Ulmer's, was in the pursuit. This time Dawkins, Webster and Mitchell came within 0.102s of the team sprint gold.
Their silver medal is a reward for the efforts Cycling NZ has made to lift its results on the track, and it will be a spur for the three young teammates who flat together and train together at Cambridge. They clearly relished the Games environment, producing their three fastest times, and to come so close means they still have a goal to be fastest within reach.
