The Olympic rowing champion Hamish Bond is now a Commonwealth Games bronze medallist.
Olympic rowing champion Hamish Bond wins bronze on the Gold Coast in the individual time trial. Photo: © Photosport Ltd 2018 www.photosport.nz
Olympic rowing champion Hamish Bond wins bronze on the Gold Coast in the individual time trial.
Bond set an early benchmark in the men's time trial on the Gold Coast with a time of 48:45.45 but more experienced cyclists pipped him at the line.
For a long time Bond was in the Gold medal position but as the splits came though two main rivals looked threatening.
Bond could only look on as Englishman Harry Tanfield put in a top knotch sprint finish to knock Bond out of the top spot.
A few minutes later the Australian rider Cameran Meyer, who was dominant throughout crossed the line with the quickest time claiming gold.
After his race Bond said it was probably his most complete race to date.
"I was pleased when I got off the bike I felt as though there wasn't too much more I could've done."
But in true Bond style, he started dissecting his race as his rivals came home.
"Inevitably with my personality, you start seeing the other riders come in and some small margins, like two seconds to silver and you start thinking about 'could have done this', 'could have done that'. But I'm really pleased to come away with a medal and I feel as though I executed fairly well to my potential at the moment."
Earlier on in his race Bond had to take some evasive action which could have cost him precious seconds.
"I just came up on one of the African riders, they were not moving as fast as we are and perhaps their management aren't as experienced as the likes of ourselves and Australia. They just didn't move the team car that was following them out of the way quick enough so basically came up on them and there was no where to go. I had to put on the anchors a little bit and take some evasive action."
Bond was pretty philosophical about the hiccup.
"Fortunately I came through relatively unscathed but when you're looking at two seconds to silver those are the sort of things that add up. Inevitably Harry in Silver would have equally a few moments on the course where I'm sure he would've thought he's left some time out there and Cam as well I think the nature of high performance athletes they are always dissecting those small little things."
Fellow New Zealander James Oram finished 5th.
- RNZ
