Collection t rue des martyrs

New Zealand athletes returned home to a heroes’ welcome from the Birmingham Commonwealth Games today – with their biggest gold medal haul.

Family and supporters turned out to congratulate Team New Zealand after they claimed 20 gold medals and 49 medals overall – the most ever won by New Zealand at an away-Games.

Pole vaulter Imogen Ayris was thrilled to be home after claiming the bronze medal despite suffering a foot fracture.

“It’s so exciting to be home. I couldn’t be happier to be back,” said Ayris.

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“If anything, it makes it more special to be able to do it with a fractured foot. Mum came to pick me up and I’ll go home and see all my friends later.”

Paraswimmer Jessie Reynolds had an emotional reunion with family, after he emerged into the arrivals area with his medal hanging proudly around his neck.

“It’s so good to be back. It’s a long trip home,” Reynolds said.

“Thanks to everyone for coming out. It’s been really cool to be welcomed home and to have my family here is just awesome, to finally be able to see them after winning the medal. It’s really special.”

Bronze medal winning boxer Uila Mau’u had rest and relaxation on his mind after completing the campaign.

“Seafood boil up, KFC and Burger King, that’s what I’m doing straight after this,” he said.

Mau’u admits he had gold ambitions, but is thrilled with what he achieved at the Games.

“It means a lot. I set a goal in 2018 and this shows all the hard work it took to get here. The goal was to medal, but when I got the bronze I was gunning for gold. But I’m happy with the outcome and to be able to do this for our country.”

White Ferns T20 cricketer Izzy Gaze was beaming with pride after the side claimed the bronze medal with an eight wicket win over host country England.

“It was really special to get out there with the girls and to play every game was really cool – and to come away with a medal was even better,” Gaze said.

“It was a great experience and something I’ll cherish.”

Team New Zealand’s Chef de Mission Nigel Avery said he was proud of the athletes’ collective efforts and highlighted their winning performances over their record medal tally.

“Regardless of how they went it was going to be an amazing experience,” said Avery.

“We had an amazing group of Kiwis. But 20 golds is pretty spectacular. I didn’t have any preconceived ideas of what we would or could get, but when they started rolling in, we’ll take them. It was a great team effort.”

The former Olympian and five-time Commonwealth Games medalist said he was already missing the camaraderie that had developed in the group over the last eight and a half weeks.

“It’s a bit weird and a bit sad leaving everybody. It’s a bit like leaving a school camp, you come home and you can’t see your mates.

“It’s been a really wonderful trip.”

Cyclist Aaron Gate was responsible for the medal that tipped this year’s team into the history books, taking gold in the men’s road race after already winning gold three times on the track. That brought the total up to 18, but there was still more in the tank for the Kiwis, who finished with 20 gold medals.

The previous record was a haul of 17, which was accomplished in Auckland back in 1990 – 32 years ago.

In a post-Cabinet press conference on Monday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand was in a golden era of high performance sport.

Deputy Prime Minister and Sports and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson hailed this year’s Commonwealth Games as “truly exceptional”.

On top of the 20 gold medals, the team also brought home 12 silver and 17 bronze for a total of 49 medals.

This left the team with a final rank of fifth place on the medal table, with Australia taking the top spot, having collected 67 golds.

NRL player Manase Fainu has been found guilty of stabbing a Mormon youth leader in the back, puncturing the man’s lung, when a bloody brawl erupted in a Sydney church car park .

The Manly Sea Eagles hooker , 24, had denied plunging a knife into Faamanu Levi outside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Wattle Grove, in Sydney’s south-west, on October 25, 2019. He pleaded not guilty to one count of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

On Thursday afternoon, after two hours of deliberations, the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict. The offence carries a maximum penalty of 25 years behind bars, with a standard non-parole period of seven years.

Fainu showed no obvious reaction to the verdict, which his barrister Margaret Cunneen, SC, said would be appealed against “as a perverse verdict in view of the evidence”. She had read her client passages from a Bible in the moments before the jury filed into the courtroom.

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The Crown made a detention application, under new bail laws, which was opposed by Cunneen who argued Fainu was not someone who could “fly under the radar” and said it was “impossible to imagine that he would breach any bail condition” ahead of sentencing.

She said her client was supported by a God-fearing community who would be devastated by Thursday’s outcome. Two sheriff officers sat inside the courtroom on either side of the exit.

Due to the time, at 4.30pm (Australian time) on Thursday, Judge Nanette Williams adjourned Fainu’s detention application until Monday morning.

She said it could not be determined on Friday due to planned industrial action by prison officers.

“Tomorrow there is no point,” she said. “Were I to form a view that the detention application is made good, there’s simply no one to take Mr Fainu into custody, extraordinary as it might seem.”

She increased Fainu’s bail conditions, so he must report to police on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and is not to leave his address unless in the company of his mother and father, who were among those in court to hear the verdict.

As Fainu left court, met by over 30 family and friends and flanked by security and Manly teammate Josh Aloiai, his lawyer Paul McGirr said, “there’s nothing that he wants to say at this stage”.

Supporters of Fainu during his trial in Parramatta District Court included his agent Mario Tartak, Manly coach Des Hasler and Aloiai, who appeared on the same day as the Sea Eagles’ game against the Roosters and was one of seven players to sit out after objecting to wearing a pride jersey.

The jury was told Fainu had not played NRL since 2019 under the code’s no-fault stand-down policy.

During his day in the stand, Fainu claimed he had been at least 10 metres away from the brawl between his friends and Levi’s group.

He said two friends, including Uona “Big Buck” Faingaa, had earlier been kicked out of a charity dance in the church hall where Faingaa said he intended to pick up money for a concreting job.

Fainu said, after that incident, he jumped over a fence back onto church grounds expecting to collect the money himself, but his friends followed him over, and then he saw “like a brawl going on”.

“I backpedalled,” he said, adding that his NRL training was to walk away and not get involved.

Fainu said he ran after hearing “knife, knife” and claimed he did not know who stabbed the victim.

It is an agreed fact that Fainu had an operation on his left shoulder in September 2019 and was wearing a sling on the night of the stabbing. He was captured on CCTV jumping back over the fence and picking his sling up off the ground.

Levi gave evidence he and his best friend had walked two men to the front gate after a fight on the dance floor and told them to go home.

“I said … this is a church activity,” Levi said, adding that one shook his head and replied, “F— you.”

“I don’t know who was calling out, [saying], ‘Come out and see what you want,’ but I said, ‘Goodbye, we’re going back inside.’”

He said he had “never experienced this kind of thing”, and a fight later erupted next to his car.

Levi felt a stab to his lower right shoulder and said he “was in pain that I can’t explain”, but did not see who had knifed him.

His housemate, Tony Quach, said he saw Fainu holding a steak knife with a clenched fist, his right arm bent at a 90-degree angle and his left arm in a sling, looking “angry” as he stabbed Levi’s back.

Quach said he “recognised Manase” after the incident.

Levi’s friend Kupi Toilalo was “adamant the person with the knife was the person with the sling”, Crown prosecutor Emma Curran had submitted.

Cunneen had said Fainu’s sling “drew the eye” and was a “distinguishing feature” of the group of five men, but argued there was no one else’s DNA on it.

She told the jury her client had “really suffered by his position as a football player”.

“It was easy to blame it on him because some people knew him and the sling stood out.”

Sydney Morning Herald

Phillip Rollo is a Stuff sports reporter

OPINION: New Zealand enjoyed a golden Commonwealth Games in 2022, winning more gold medals (20) than ever before.

But not all the country’s top performances resulted in gold medals or even podium finishes, with two track and field athletes holding their own against world-class competition in two of the Games’ glamour events.

Here is a look at New Zealand’s top 10 performances from Birmingham, ranked from 10 to 1.

10. Joelle King and Paul Coll – gold in the mixed squash doubles

King bounced back from the disappointment of missing out on a medal in the women’s singles to claim gold alongside men’s champion Paul Coll in the mixed doubles. The New Zealand pair were simply unstoppable, reaching the final without dropping a set before wrapping up a convincing 11-3, 11-6 win over England’s Alison Waters and Adrian Waller inside just 26 minutes in the gold medal match.

9. Aaron Gate, Campbell Stewart, Jordan Kerby, Tom Sexton – gold in the men’s team pursuit

Twelve months after crashing out of the Tokyo Olympics, the men’s pursuit team got a taste of redemption when they silenced the crowd at Lee Valley VeloPark to beat England in a new Commonwealth record time of 3min 57.575 sec. It was New Zealand’s first win in the event since 1990 and signalled the start of the gold rush for New Zealand’s successful cycling team.

8. Zoe Hobbs – sixth in the women’s 100m

Hobbs became the first New Zealander to qualify for a 100m final since Chris Donaldson in 1998 and the first woman since Briar Toop in 1990 when she finished second behind Jamaican superstar and five-time Olympic gold medallist Elaine Thompson-Herah in the semifinals. The fastest woman in New Zealand history proved she could foot it with the world’s best by finishing a creditable sixth in the final, crossing the line just 0.02 seconds off fourth place. She was just 0.01 seconds off her Oceania record in the heats.

7. Tom Walsh and Jacko Gill – gold and silver in the men’s shot put

Tom Walsh led a New Zealand 1-2 finish in the men’s shot put. Coming off a disappointing World Championships campaign, where he finished fourth, Walsh sounded a warning to his rivals when he hurled the 7.26kg sphere out to 21.98m with the first of six throws. He then sealed the gold medal with a mighty 22.26m effort with his sixth and final attempt. New Zealander Jacko Gill came closest to Walsh, throwing a huge personal best of 21.90m to win the silver medal. No one else went further than 21m.

6. Sam Tanner – sixth in the men’s 1500m

Sam Tanner described himself as the “happiest sixth-placed getter ever” after shaving more than three seconds off his personal best to clock an eye-catching time of 3 min 31.34sec in the men’s 1500m final, moving the 21-year-old ahead of New Zealand track and field legends Sir John Walker and Rod Dixon and into second behind Nick Willis on the country’s all-time rankings list. The 1500m final was won by Australia’s Ollie Hoare with world champion Jake Whiteman of Scotland taking bronze – highlighting the strength of the field.

5. Ellesse Andrews – gold in the women’s individual sprint

Andrews enjoyed a sensational debut, winning four medals; three golds and one silver. But it was her gold in the individual sprint that was the most impressive, due to the high level of competition and the dominant nature of her victory. Andrews upset Olympic champion Kelsey Mitchell in the first two races of the best of three series, showing incredible power to reel in the gold medal favourite on both occasions.

4. Lewis Clareburt – gold in the men’s 400m individual medley

Clareburt ended a 16-year drought when he became the first New Zealand man since 2006 to win a gold medal in the pool with a record-breaking swim in the 400m individual medley. The 23-year-old led throughout all four legs of the differing strokes but really pulled away on the breaststroke leg, which had been his weakest discipline until very recently. His time of 4 min 8.7 sec was more than three seconds quicker than the previous Games record.

3. Bryony Botha – gold in the women’s individual pursuit

Bryony Botha was so dominant in the final of the women’s 3000m individual pursuit she was right on the wheel of Australia’s Maeve Plouffe when she crossed the finish line in an event where riders start at opposite ends of the track. Botha expected the final to be a tight contest but she won by a whopping 8.666 seconds, smashing her own Games record by posting a world-class time of 3 min 18.456 sec. That is more than six seconds quicker than the great Sarah Ulmer who she joined by becoming an IP winner.

2. Lewis Clareburt – gold in the men’s 200m butterfly

South Africa’s Chad le Clos became the most decorated male athlete of all-time when he won a silver medal in the 200m butterfly to take his overall collection to 18. But that made the winner’s performance all the more special. Clareburt claimed his second gold when he stunned one of swimming’s biggest names with a late surge on the final lap to win by 0.29 seconds. Incredibly, Clareburt was not originally going to race the 200m butterfly. He was only added to the start list at late notice after a change of heart.

1. Aaron Gate – gold in the men’s road race

New Zealand’s star performer of the Games stunned a strong field of WorldTour riders including Mark Cavendish and former Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas to create history by winning his fourth gold in one of the competition’s most gruelling events. Gate’s performance in the 160km road race was legendary, getting in the decisive 15-man breakaway, reacting to constant attacks from his rivals before somehow finding the legs to sprint to victory ahead of the likes of Thomas and South Africa’s Daryl Impey.

What do you think was the best performance in Birmingham? Let us know in the comments.