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New Zealand Steals The Day

by Collin Mcquillan in Manchester, August 4 2002

[last update was 5-aug-02 ]

Colin Mcquilllan, live from Manchester on Sunday Afternoon

Leilani Rorani Scores Two Golds

ENGLAND'S ADVANTAGE EVAPORATES
All of Australia's renowned strength in depth and all of England's extraordinary home support came to nothing at the England National Squash Centre in Sportcity, Manchester, today, as New Zealand's Leilani Rorani took over the destiny of the Gold Medals in the Commonwealth Games Women's Doubles and Mixed Doubles Finals.

Back in action for the first time since rupturing an Achilles tendon last December, the 28-year-old Hamilton based Rorani failed in the women's singles last week but today won the Women's Doubles Gold Medal in company with Carol Owens and the Mixed Doubles Gold Medal in company with Glen Wilson. Australia finished with more squash medals than any other country, but New Zealand took the most Gold Medals thanks to Leilani Rorani's storming doubles performances and England finished ahead of Australia on Silver content.

Australia's single Gold came from Sarah Fitz-Gerald's win over Carol Owens in the women's singles final and Canada took Gold from Jonathon Power's win over Peter Nicol in the men's singles final.

England finally won squash Gold today when Peter Nicol, the former Scot who could manage only Silver behind Power in the squash singles, won a 73 minute Men's Doubles final with Lee Beachill 15-11 15-12 from Australia's Stewart Boswell and Anthony Ricketts. In the Women's Doubles Final Cassie Jackman and Tania Bailey missed another Gold for England by two points after leading 10-6 in the third game of a 71 minute 15-11 5-15 15-13 final against Leilani Rorani and Carol Owens of New Zealand.

Rorani also took Gold in the Mixed Doubles with Glen Wilson, beating Ong Beng Hee and Nicol David of Malaysia 15-11 15-9 in 45 minutes. England took two Silver Medals through Nicol's singles result and the doubles effort of Jackman and Bailey, and four Bronze medals through Jackman's semi-final loss to Owens in the Women's Singles, Mark Chaloner with Paul Johnson in the Men's Doubles, Linda Charman with Fiona Geaves in the Women's Doubles, and Chris Walker with Fiona Geaves in the Mixed Doubles. Australia took a Silver Medal from the Boswell/Ricketts result, and six Bronze Medals through Rachael Grinham's loss to Fitz-Gerald in the Women's Singles, David Palmer's loss to Nicol and Stewart Boswell's loss to Power in the Men's Singles, David Palmer with Paul Price in the Men's Doubles, Rachael and Natalie Grinham in the Women's Doubles and Joe Kneipp with Robyn Cooper in the Mixed Doubles. Malaysia finished with the Silver medal taken from the Mixed Doubles 22-year-old Ong Beng Hee and 18-year-old Nicol David.

Nicol Strikes Gold At Last
Nicol is the London based 29-year-old world champion and world number one. Beachill is the 24-year-old Pontefract based British National Champion who regards the glass showcoat at the National Squash Centre in Sportcity as his home court. Together over recent months in tight and positive atmosphere of the England training camp they have developed a tactical doubles base that is almost beyond penetration.

They drove the top- seeded Australian pairing of David Palmer and Paul Price into furious argumentative defeat in the semi-finals and only for spasmodic moments in the final did they seem likely to let the second string Aussies past them.

"In the second game they kept getting a couple of points ahead and we knew we had to raise our game each time to make sure they could not consolidate those opportunities to take us into a third game," said Beachill.

Nicol was prepared to leave tactical command to Beachill. "He kept reminding me to stay forward on the court and to rally calmly, deep and wide," the world champion said. "It is important in doubles to keep the rhythm and not be drawn into nervy exchanges.

"Australia got their leads by firing chancy shots in, but they lost them by missing the same sort of risky shots. We concentrated on keeping the pressure on all the time and not making mistakes."

Nicol agreed that if he had not won this Gold, he might have been tempted to stay in Manchester and keep digging until he actually hit a seam. "I was not going to leave these games without Gold," he declared.

"It has been very hard work. We arrived a few days before the competition started and it has been non-stop for me through the full two weeks. This Gold makes some amends for losing the singles title that I won for Scotland four years ago in Kuala Lumpur, although I have not really had time to absorb yet how disappointed I am not to have won that for England also."

Great Partners
Rorani and the 31year-old Wilson, a London based club coach who was once his country's leading young player behind the world successes of Ross Norman, were outstandingly the best mixed pairing in the games.

"My job was just to keep the ship steady," commented Wilson. "Leilani is the shotmaker and the brilliance of the team. I am the workhorse. She wins the points."

Rorani refused to accept the accolade. "It all comes from the spirit that we developed in the New Zealand camp," she insisted. I have never worked in such a happy and positive group. We have all been working for each other from the start.

"Just two months ago I would have given no chance of me even playing in these Games," Hamilton based 28-year-old said. "But now I have two Gold medals because of these two great partners I was teamed with; Carol Owens and Glen Wilson."

Owens, a 31-year-old who goes home to Auckland with a Gold and a Silver after losing the singles final to Sarah Fitz-Gerald of Australia on Wednesday, said she was thinking of taking Rorani on as a mentor. "We have been great rivals for years on the circuit," said Owens, who was born in Melbourne and played for Australia in the last Commonwealth Games, but has moved her base into Auckland. "We have had a great time sharing a room here and she tells me so often that I am awesome that I am starting to believe it."

Awesome
Awesome might be a good word to describe the way in which the two Kiwis fought back from 6-10 down in the third game to finish on a clinical forehand straight nick from Owens. "I am supposed to be the runner on the team, but the ball sat up for me so I just hit it," Owens said.

Jackman and Bailey admitted that they thought the Gold was in the bag at 10-6 with Rorani visibly tiring from her efforts in two finals.

"But they raised their game so well in the last phase," said Jackman, who was hoping to keep the title she won in partnership with Sue Wright in Kuala Lumpur.

"We didn't do much wrong. They just got the run of things at the end. To get a Silver finishing 13-15 in a three game final is not so bad."

"I had hoped to keep the title I won last time with Sue Wright, but Tania and I have made a good new partnership and we might be back together next time in Melbourne. This has been the best squash event I have ever played in; better than the world championships, better than the British Open.

"I have never played in front of such big crowds that are so keen and so vocal for an English win. It has just been a revelation as to what some other athletes enjoy when they perform in front of home crowds."

The young Malaysians Rorani defeated with Wilson in the mixed final were visibly jaded from their 84 minute single point victory over the top seeded English pair of Chris Walker and Fiona Geaves that finished late on Saturday, less than 12 hours before the start of the final.

"We have to be both satisfied and disappointed," admitted Ong Beng Hee. "We might have been a bit closer with more rest. But we were seeded for the Silver and, thanks mainly to Nicol's strengths in the forehand court we have fulfilled that seeding and won a Silver medal for Malaysia."

In fact it is likely the new Zealanders were onto the Mixed Doubles Gold whatever the Malaysian pair produced. Wilson proved a strong and dependable player and Rorani, although inhibited in singles play by her less than complete freedom of movement, was the dominant shotplayer throughout this doubles competition.

"Playing half a court is just about all I am good for right now," she admitted. "But it is fantastic to get any medals after the year I have had. Even when we were training back home I was making constant mistakes and hardly covering the court. After the first game in the women's final, I actually felt sick with tiredness.

"The worst thing here was having to beat Carol and Daniel Sharplin, our New Zealand team mates on the way to the mixed final. They were in really sharp form and back home they beat us every time we went on court.

"It is just so wonderful to win Gold Medals for New Zealand."

Commonwealth Games Doubles Squash Mixed Doubles Final result:
Glen Wilson/Leilani Rorani (NZ) bt Ong Beng Hee/Nicol David (Mas) 15-11 15-9

Womens Doubles Final result:
Leilani Rorani/Carol Owens (NZ) bt Cassie Jackman/Tania Bailey (Eng) 15-11 5-15 15-13

Men's Doubles Final result:
Peter Nicol/Lee Beachill (Eng) bt Stewart Boswell/Anthony Ricketts (Aus) 15-11 15-12

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