It was the final day of competition for the New Zealand team at the Youth Olympic Games. While many of the athletes had finished competition in the days preceding, there was still the New Zealand freestyle wrestlers and mens hockey to go.
WRESTLING
The two freestyle mens wrestlers Douglas Lloyd, 17, Auckland, and Brahm Richards, 17, Auckland fought today in their first and final day of competition.
It was a difficult draw for the two athletes and both struggled to compete, falling in each of their matches, aside from a win by default for Lloyd in his final match.
Coach Scott Boness said the two wrestlers took a while to warm in to the competition, only adjusting in the final two matches.
Their performances changed, said Boness, speaking of the final two matches. There was a bit more fight.
Richards was able to score two points on his Russian opponent in his third match of the 54kg division, but was eventually defeated 4-1.
Lloyd finished 7th in the mens 63kg wrestling competition after three rounds of difficult match-ups against Canada, India, Venezuela. It was Lloyd's final match against Palau's James Dydasco that saw the wrestler come into his own, winning 10-0 on technical points.
This marks the end of a long competition for the wrestlers, who waited until the final three days before they started.
MENS HOCKEY
It was a nail-biting and frustrating end for the mens 5-a-side hockey team on the final day of competition today, just missing out on 5th place in the competition.
The team played Pakistan for the 5th and 6th positions and looked in good stead after the first 12-minute period, up 1-0 heading in to the second period.
But the Pakistan defense kept the kiwi team out, and scored three goals to New Zealands two in the second period.
With a three-all score going in to the final period, New Zealand fought to get the ball into the goal but failed where Pakistan succeeded. The final score was 4-3, leaving New Zealand with a 6th overall placing.
Coach Dave Kosoof said the team overall have done really well, but that the team would have liked to finish off the competition with a win.
Result wise we could have done more but performance were pretty happy, said Kosoof.