Records Broken, Legends Born

New Zealand won 31 medals – 6 gold, 12 silver and 13 bronze – at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. 200m butterfly victor Moss Burmester became the first NZ man to win gold in the pool since Danyon Loader in 1994 (sparking a spontaneous haka from his team-mates), Valerie Vili set a new Games record with her gold-winning 19.66m shot put throw, the rugby 7s team won their third consecutive Games gold, Graeme Ede won the men’s trap shooting, and the world champion Silver Ferns netball side beat Australia to take gold in the final event of the Games. But the most rhapsodic media response came after Nick Willis‘ dramatic victory in the men’s 1500m track event. NZ Herald: “Willis is no longer the promising athlete. He is no longer the boy who could follow in the footsteps of Lovelock, Snell and Walker. He is now the man chosen to follow that path. And he is acutely aware of his place in history.”