CurraNZ athletes take high rank at Commonwealth Games

Now that the curtain has come down on a brilliant Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, we look back at a sensational event that captivated us all at CurraNZ HQ.

We were proud to have athletes amongst the New Zealand and British teams, with both nations securing record medal hauls.

 Julia Ratcliffe, our hammer throwing ambassador and defending Commonwealth Champion, (left) threw 69.63, to secure silver for Team New Zealand. She reflects on how Covid almost derailed her participation at the event.

Julia says: “I had Covid in the 10-12 days before the Games started. Getting to the start line healthy was a mission but I’m grateful I was able to compete and put a performance out there.

“I’m really chuffed to come away with a medal and a distance that wasn’t terrible.

“It was a messy tour overall, lots of things went wrong and the travel and logistics were harder than usual. So it was a relief to let it sink in that I made it to the start line.

“I want to say a big thank you to CurraNZ for supporting me in my journey, it definitely helped with my training and I’m so thankful for the support from a NZ company.”

Multi-eventer Hollly Mills (pictured, above) put up a terrific display in the women’s two-day Heptathlon, posting top-three positions in the 100m hurdles, high jump and shotput on day one, which saw her in bronze medal position going into day two.

With little dividing the top four athletes, two fourth places in the long jump and javelin were enough to move Holly out of a medal position.

She rounded off the event in outstanding style, by blitzing the field in the 800m, setting a scorching pace and unassailable lead from gun to tape, but sadly didn’t provide enough points to elevate her back into a medal contention.

It was a fantastic Commonwealth Games debut, and this shining talent heads to the European Championships in Munich in a few weeks time.

In summary, we were thrilled to see many athletes we supply at the Games (we can only report on our ambassadors) who took Britain to a record 176 medals (57 golds, for second overall) and New Zealand to 49 medals (a record 20 golds, fifth overall).

 IMAGE CREDIT: Alisha Lovrich