The Medals Keep Coming

Before the Olympics start people like to get out in front with their predictions, fair enough. We didn’t so much set predictions though as we set targets. The official NZ Olympic Committee target was 16 total medals. At The Niche Cache we’re more ambitious so we set a mark of 8 golds and 20 total medals and wouldn’t you know it we’re halfway there.

The women’s sevens team did the business in the final against France to win gold (and earn a bit of redemption after losing out at that stage five years ago in Rio), that was our fourth gold of the Olympics so far – and the 50th ever. There might even be more golds by the time you read this, there’ll definitely be more medals sooner rather than later. Women’s sevens gold was also the tenth overall medal so yeah exactly halfway to the target. But you know what? Not all medals are created equally and there’s a sneaky argument that the three most impressive achievements from those first ten were actually the three bronze medals.

You’ve got Hayden Wilde coming in big time in the triathlon. You’ve got that incredible run from Marcus Daniell and Michael Venus in the men’s doubles tennis. Then you’ve got Dylan Schmidt coming outta nowhere to get a trampolining bronze. Wilde was a few days back so that’s already been covered and there’s more on the tennis lads to come but mate Schmidty. Jumping and spinning and flipping and twisting his way onto the podium... he very nearly got silver too but the last dude pipped both he and Chinese leader Dong Dong despite almost landing off the tramp at one point.

Pretty sure the judges know better than you or I though. Pretty stoked with a bronze – Schmidt was seventh in Rio as a 20 year old and he finished tenth at the last World Champs (the four-time defending World Champion was China’s Gao Lei and he did miss his landing at one point which caused him to fail in qualifying for the final, opening the competition right up). A massive effort to go through to the final in third and then to back it up with his medal routine. Not a guy who too many would have had pegged as a medal candidate leading up to the event yet here we are. New Zealand’s first ever medal in an Olympic gymnastics event.

That’s ten medals in the bag. David Nyika is guaranteed to bring home at least a bronze. Shot put, equestrian, canoeing, cycling, sailing all still to come. The target’s looking good.

Quick Word From Ruby Tui

That was from after the quarter-final win over Russia. Bit of a viral moment on the BBC.

Sevens Glory

Aotearoa women and Fiji men are the only teams to win Rugby Sevens medals in the Rio and Tokyo Olympics. The lads from Fiji have gone back to back with Olympic golds and continue to dominate the Sevens landscape despite, or in spite of European rugby's control of the Pacific Islands and that alone deserves to be celebrated. Then we have the Aotearoa women who in all my Aotearoa sporting excellence bias should be thrown up as the representative team of Olympic sports.

There are literally too many warm-fuzzy moments from the Sevens wahine to note them all down. Every chance to speak was a chance to showcase who they are and what Aotearoa sport is all about, although in the Sevens context these kiwis are slightly different as they are cut from the 'favourites cloth'. The Sevens women won four out of six tournaments on the World Rugby Sevens Series in 2019 to finish 1st, then in 2020 they won four out of five tournaments to finish 1st again in a campaign obviously impacted by pandemic antics.

Not many Aotearoa Olympic medalists can hold claim to such dominance leading into Tokyo and as they stormed home to an Olympic gold, the kiwis set the benchmark not only for favouritism but also the benchmark for an Olympic sport that will continue to flourish. Shout out to the men as well, although their silver medal throws up the same situation on the men's side of Sevens as the first nation or team you think of when pondering men's Sevens is Fiji and that's where Aotearoa's wahine are at right now.

The characters in this women's Sevens team are the key factor in all of this. The leadership of Sarah Hirini, Kelly Brazier, Ruby Tui and Portia Woodman is among Aotearoa's elite and regular Niche Cache readers know that Aotearoa sets this bar extremely high. On the field these athletes are the best in the world and as I don't tune into a lot of the Sevens circuit each year, their viral moments off the field were extremely fun.

Aotearoa. Rugby. Major tournaments. Pressure.

What pressure? These ladies were the epitome of fun and anytime the purest sporting values are blended in with excellence and fun - I'm all here for it.

Women's Sevens feels like it has more growth in store for it compared to women's rugby, with the Olympics being leading that charge. Two Olympics down for Sevens and Aotearoa is undisputedly the best, with characters who women's Sevens hopefuls around the world can look up to. Consider the other two teams who medaled in either Olympics with Australia taking gold in Rio and Canada bronze, while Tokyo saw France take silver and Fiji bronze. In a sport where more nations and athletes are getting involved, Aotearoa's wahine are still the best and as the sport's popularity grows everyone will eager to emulate the kiwis - or just have as much fun as them.

Wilding Out On The Tennis Court

Wilding out in a good way, that is. Not in a stroppy Novak Djokovic kinda way.

Marcus Daniell and Michael Venus, what an effort. They were so good throughout the tournament, entering unseeded but on the back of some powerful serving, quality at the net, and a timely tendency to dominate the big moments they’ve bagged Aotearoa’s first Olympic tennis medal for 109 years by beating USA's Austin Krajicek and Tennys Sandgren 7-6 6-2 in the bronze playoff. It had been a disappointing one for them losing to the Croatian pair of Marin Čilić and Ivan Dodig in the semis where they didn’t really look like they were in the contest. Fair play, those two were amazing. Čilić serves with a flamethrower (although those two lost to fellow Croatians Nikola Mektić and Mate Pavić in the final).

Hell of a way to respond though as they dominated the bronze match. They looked comfortable on serve in the first set, and while they missed multiple opportunities to break service the other way they did what they’ve done the whole time in Tokyo and bossed the tiebreaker. An early break in the second set then put them in prime position and despite a desperate fight back from the Americans they were able to consolidate that break and withstand a few extended games for an emotional win.

Anthony Wilding though. His bronze medal in Stockholm 1912 was so long ago that it was before New Zealand even sent specific teams to those games. He represented Australasia – it wasn’t until 1920 that New Zealand and Australia competed separately. By which time Wilding was dead, killed in action in France during World War I at the tragically young age of 31.

He crammed a heap of sporting goodness into his short years however. 11 grand slam titles, six singles titles and five doubles. Four of each were at Wimbledon. Chuck in four more Davis Cup titles (also for Australasia). In 1906 he won 23 titles in a single year which is still a record. No player in history has yet matched his career 91.77% win record. He’s considered a former number one ranked player with those rankings having been backdated. Probably would’ve won another Olympic medal in 1908 too but he missed out on competing because of an admin drama of some sort. Oh and he was also a first class cricketer for Canterbury and a keen motorcyle rider. Legitimately one of the all time great kiwi sports heroes, though his legacy probably isn’t as well known as it should be because of how long ago he competed and also because like many of his era he basically relocated to England full time for his career.

For his career... and also for his lifestyle. Because Tony Wilder was a bit of a playboy too - a skux, in the parlance of our times. When he died, he’d been engaged to American silent film actress and businesswoman Maxine Elliott (who was like 15 years older than him but whatevs). There were also contemporary accounts of female fans in the stands fainting during one of his Wimbledon finals, whereupon they “had to be laid out on the court beside the roller until they could be removed”. Whether that was because of the swooning or because of the fact that more than 7000 people crammed in to watch him that day (beating American Maurice ‘The Californian Comet’ McLoughlin) and it all got a bit like sardines in a can, dunno. Sources vary.

You can read his book online too, it’s out of copyright. On The Court And Off... it’s part autobiography and part tennis manual apparently. Here’s a Guardian Archive review from when it came out.

As For The Black Sticks

Black Sticks Men's hockey?

Black Sticks Women's hockey has a better outlook, although there have been a few wobbles to wrap up pool play. The kiwis face Netherlands tomorrow and the Dutch won all five of their games, scoring 18 goals and conceding just 2. That's an immense challenge for the Black Sticks and after winning their first game against Argentina 3-0, there was a decent chance of a better quarter-final match up instead of the highest qualifier from Pool A.

The kiwis then defeated Japan 2-1, before losing to Spain 1-2 and Australia 0-1. Then came a 2-3 loss to China who finished on 6 points along with Aotearoa but fell short via goal difference. After winning their first two games, the kiwis lost three games in a row all by a single goal margin and were extremely lucky to qualify for the knockout stage.

Those three losses now force the kiwis to play Netherlands - who have scored twice as many goals as Aotearoa. Their form suggests that they will struggle, yet the kiwis lost some games they shouldn't have during pool play and that same scenario could be flipped around in their favour tomorrow.

Beautiful Rowing Spectacles

Ain’t it pretty?

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