New Zealand's Sam Gaze and Anton Cooper have claimed a New Zealand one-two in the men's mountain biking at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, with Gaze winning gold and Cooper silver.
Sam Gaze (right) takes gold and Anton Cooper win silver in the men's mountain-biking competition at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Photo: PhotoSport
The race went down to the wire, with Gaze producing an incredible last lap performance after suffering a mechanical early into the final lap and dropping back to third.
However he fought back to second before closing in on Cooper.
The pair were neck and neck with Gaze passing near the end of the final lap, with the duo going head to head and arm to arm before Gaze squeezed past.
Gaze then held on in the final sprint to claim his first Commonwealth Games gold.
"I can't believe I won gold. The feeling is just unimaginable. There was lots of bad luck going around with people having stacks (crashes) and punctures, so I'm really happy with today's result," Gaze said following the race.
He said he lost about 15 seconds after getting a puncture but was lucky to make up that time on the last lap.
"I just had to believe in myself and keep telling myself I could do it." he said.
"I knew I needed to close that gap because if I didn't, I wouldn't win the race. Although at that stage, all that was on my mind was just getting back on my bike as quickly as I could, and I'm really grateful that I got the job done."
The cyclist said he had a lot of motivation to win, although he wasn't expecting a gold.
"I'm proud of myself and how I was able to overcome the hard times in that race, and the flat rim (puncture)," he said.
"It's not a race unless you have fun, and that's what I was aiming to do. I had one goal and one goal only, and that was just to ride my best race."
Gaze overtook teammate Anton Cooper in the last lap of the race.
"Although he is my competition, I have great respect for him, and he's the only reason I'm on the podium today. It was a bit of a shame having to overtake him, but that's racing."
Cooper said he tried to hold Gaze off, but he managed to get around him.
"You're never safe until you're done and I knew he was going to come from behind," he said following the race.
"He really dropped the hammer on that last climb. It turned into a bit of a drag race. Sam was very powerful in that last climb.
"There's not much more that I could've done."
He said his race plan was to put on a show and match it with Sam.
"I knew it would be a tactical race. I wanted to target this race and do well at it," he said.
"Of course it's disappointing not to get the job done in the end. Silver in a Commonwealth Games is pretty good, not quite as nice as gold last time though (COOPER won gold in the cross-country event at Glasgow 2014)."
The pair were beaten into the first corner by fellow New Zealander Ben Oliver, who finished fourth.
However Gaze and defending champion Cooper soon took over and apart from a brief period on the third lap, when bronze medallist South African Alan Hatherly moved to the front, they lead from start to finish.
The result is the reverse of the 2014 Glasgow Games, where Cooper won gold and Gaze silver.
- RNZ
