New Zealand’s Ryan Fox has won his maiden European Tour event in dominant fashion by beating Spain’s Adrian Otaegui in the championship final of the ISPS Handa World Super 6 in Perth.
It was a well-deserved victory for the Rio Olympian who didn’t lose a single hole or record a bogey all day.
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“I’ve been close a couple of times and it’s certainly nice to get one over the line today and in a place I hold pretty special. I’ve played a lot of golf here and have always enjoyed myself,” said Fox.
“I’m happy, I played great this afternoon and I felt under the most control I have in all the matches so far, so it’s nice to finish in style.”
“It’s just starting to sink in and it feels surreal,” said Fox who now turns his focus to his home country for the New Zealand Open.
Meanwhile a silver medal at the FIS Freeski Halfpipe World Cup in Calgary has put New Zealand’s Nico Porteous to the top of the World Cup Tour leader board.
Porteous earned his best score on his first attempt, landing two double 1260s and scoring 87.75 in stormy conditions.
“I’m super stoked,” said the PyeongChang bronze medallist.
“It was challenging conditions, really strong winds and quite a bit of snow at the bottom but I’m more than happy to come away from this comp in second place after battling these tough conditions. But the thing I’m most happy with is having the yellow bib over my shoulders. I’m excited for Mammoth.”
The season’s finals are scheduled to take place at Mammoth Mountain, USA from 6-8 March.
In Azerbaijan Kiwi trampolinist Dylan Schmidt placed 5th at the Baku World Cup.
It was the Rio Olympian’s first competition in 14 months, following a knee injury.
Back home the Black Sticks women notched up their second win of the FIH Pro League, taking down China 2-nil in Christchurch.
Striker Olivia Merry scored both goals for the home side, lifting them to two wins from five matches in the league.
At Lake Karapiro sprint canoeist Lisa Carrington retained her national open women’s K1 500m title as the kayaking superstar led home a Kiwi clean sweep of the podium in a high-class final.
The 29-year-old Eastern Bay paddler registered a time of 1:47.61 to finish 1.11secs clear of Caitlin Ryan (North Shore).
In a further measure of the quality of the New Zealand performance Aimee Fisher (Hawkes Bay) bagged bronze (1:49.69) to repel the six-strong international challenge provided by five Australians and a French athlete.
“We were the only three Kiwis in the final and to have the Aussies in there always pushes you faster,’ explains Carrington of the powerful New Zealand performance, which bodes well for the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Hungary in August.
“It means a lot to win this title, I know the quality of Caitlin and Aimee because I train with them every day. I had to work really hard to get it right.”
Carrington returned a little over an hour later to claim another gold in the K2 500m. Competing alongside young Australian Ella Beere – who post-race described winning gold with Carrington as “probably one of the best days of my life” – the duo executed a first-class race to clock 1:40.18.
Meanwhile Gold Coast 2018 double gold medallist Sophie Pascoe broke two world records in Australia at the weekend.
Superstar Pascoe set new marks in the women's S9 classification in the 50m butterfly and 50m freestyle.
Commonwealth Games team mates Tupou Neiufi won gold in the women's 50m backstroke in 35.33s on the final day of the meet while Helena Gasson won gold in the open women's 200m individual medley in 2:16.31.