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Katelyn Inch and Selina Goddard celebrate after winning their women’s pairs quarterfinal. They went on to win the bronze medal – New Zealand’s third lawn bowls bronze of the 2022 Games.
Selina Goddard and Katelyn Inch secured New Zealand’s third and final lawn bowls bronze medal of the Commonwealth Games on Saturday.
They beat Malaysia in the playoff for third in the women’s pairs, 20-15, bringing the Kiwi campaign on the greens at the Royal Leamington Spa Bowling Club to a successful end.
Goddard and Inch trailed 12-11 after 12 of the 18 scheduled ends in the bronze medal match, but finished strong, outscoring their opponents Emma Firyana Saroji and Siti Zalina Ahmad 9-3 over the final six ends.
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New Zealand is sending 232 athletes to the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Inch said on Sky Sport that being able to stand on the podium alongside gold medallists Australia and silver medallists England was “honestly a dream come true”.
“To be on that podium means so much and to do it alongside a great friend is just incredible.”
While it was Inch’s first medal at her second Commonwealth Games, it was Goddard’s third, following the fours bronze she won in Glasgow in 2014 and the fours bronze she won earlier at Birmingham 2022.
Val Smith, Nicole Toomey and Tayla Bruce rounded out the quartet that beat Fiji for bronze in the women’s fours during the first week of these Games.
Smith, Toomey and Bruce then teamed up in the women’s triples, where they beat the Cook Islands to claim bronze on Thursday.
While there were no gold or silver medals won, the three medals the lawn bowls team claimed this year matched their tally from 2014, which was their best since Manchester in 2002, where they won four.
Smith’s two bronze medals took her overall tally from five Games appearances to four.
The 57-year-old previously won silver in the women’s singles in Delhi in 2010 and bronze in the fours in 2014.
Bruce and Toomey’s two bronze medals were their first.
New Zealand at the 2022 Commonwealth Games – lawn bowls medals
Women’s pairs: Katelyn Inch and Selina Goddard won BRONZE
Women’s triples: Val Smith, Nicole Toomey and Tayla Bruce won BRONZE
Women’s fours: Val Smith, Nicole Toomey, Tayla Bruce and Selina Goddard won BRONZE
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