Women stage thrilling bowls comeback
Katelyn Inch and Selina Goddard staged a remarkable comeback to make it two wins from two for New Zealand bowlers on the opening day of the Games.
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Selina Goddard gave herself the perfect 32nd birthday present when she and Katelyn Inch staged an unlikely comeback to win their opening match in the Commonwealth Games bowls pairs.
Goddard and Inch, the Games bronze medallists in Birmingham four years ago, lost a hard-fought first set against Kenyans Nancy Cheruiyot and Wambui Mbugua 4-2 and trailed 4-0 after two ends in the second set. The New Zealanders looked in big trouble.
Amazingly, they then stormed through the next three ends to win the second set 8-4 and took the tiebreaker final end 2-0 to seal the match.
'We always back ourselves,' said a relieved Inch later. 'It wasn't our prettiest stuff and we had to fight, but we knew if we could string a couple of ends together we'd be in with a chance. We did that and played really well at the end.'
Goddard said she and Inch had to dig deep. 'We were dealing with a few things - our opening game, this amazing indoor arena, the Kenyans playing really well...there were a lot of tough moments, but we managed to get through.'
Earlier in the day, Shannon Mcilroy was untroubled to win his singles match against Tongan 17-year-old Liam Hill 10-2, 15-3.
The New Zealander, competing in his fifth Commonwealth Games, simply outclassed the Auckland-based Hill.