Gate wins historic fourth gold

New Zealand cyclist Aaron Gate has picked up his fourth gold medal of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, winning the 160km road race in a dramatic sprint finish.

Joelle King and Paul Coll won gold for New Zealand in the mixed doubles squash.  Photo: Getty...
Joelle King and Paul Coll won gold for New Zealand in the mixed doubles squash. Photo: Getty Images
Gate edged South African Daryl Impey and Finn Crockett, of Scotland, in a time of 3h 28min and 29sec, to add another gold to his track medals in the team and individual pursuit, and the points race.

It is the first time a Kiwi has won four gold medals at one Games. It was New Zealand's 18th gold medal, beating the previous record haul of 17 at the 1990 Auckland Games.

"When it came down to a sprint and I had the prime position to run at that line I couldn't believe it," Gate told Sky Sport afterwards. 

"The last two laps my legs were just constantly cramping every time I got out of the saddle or changed position, then I tried to clip my foot out to stretch my quad with a few K to go and my hamstring nearly cramped up.

"I was literally on the razor edge of getting to the line.

"We came here to win the team pursuit and when we ticked that off I was kind of hoping that momentum would carry through, but I definitely didn't believe it would be this kind of momentum. It still hasn't sunk in yet.

"Three (golds) felt great and I was super happy with that," Gate said. "I came here today and managed to help the team and if the opportunity arose to go for a fourth one, I just had to grab it with both hands. It feels absolutely phenomenal."

Squash gold, bronze for netball and cricket

In other results, Paul Coll added another squash gold after pairing with Joelle King to win the mixed doubles, while the Kiwi women won bronze medals in cricket, beating England by eight wickets and in the netball beating England 55-48.

Nathan Brown and Luke Sipkes competed in the men's 10m diving final medal event, finishing in 9th and 12th place, respectively.

The women's beach volleyball team of Shaunna Polley and Alice Zeimann fell short in the third and final set of the bronze medal final against Vanuatu.

The Black Sticks beat Wales 2-1 in their fifth-and-sixth classification match to secure a fifth place standing in the men's field hockey event.

- RNZ and Reuters