Visually impaired athletes Sonya Woodrow and Kerrin Wheeler will represent New Zealand in the mixed pairs at Glasgow 2026.
The event opens on Thursday, July 23 and the two competitors are deep into preparations for the unique conditions they will face.
Forbury Park Bowling Club member Sonya Woodrow is making her Games debut with her skip Kimberly Carraher.
After winning the singles B1 category at the New Zealand Blind Bowls nationals in Cambridge last year, the pair decided to switch to an indoor environment.
“For the last six months, we have been practising and playing indoors, because at the Commonwealth Games, it is a portable indoor rink,” Woodrow said.
This has meant adapting to the indoor surface.
“When you play outside, you have got the weather to contend with, the rain and the wind.
“So that takes that away, but it runs at a different speed.”
As a bowler in the B1 classification, Woodrow is almost totally blind.
Her skip Kimberly Carraher guides her on the mat by standing behind her and moving her shoulders so she faces the correct direction.
“She moves her foot on the mat and my foot moves to her foot, which changes my body alignment.
“So if my body is still not right she alters my shoulders.”
North East Valley player Kerrin Wheeler can see about 3.5m up the green and relies on muscle memory and verbal feedback from his father and director Colin Wheeler.
“So Dad will give me instruction that my last bowl finished two feet past a little bit wide, so I'll make the adjustment on my line,” Wheeler said.
“To put it plainly, they are our eyes on the green.”
Facing the biggest challenge of their careers, playing in front of potentially tens of thousands of people, the team are focused not only on strategy but also on mental preparedness.
“It is more of a psychological battle.
“We are good players and we know what we have to do on the green.
“It is about getting those anxieties, those excitements, those nerves under control and being able to control them while being there.”
It is also about taking in the experience.
“Realising we are competing at a Commonwealth Games and using that as motivation to get excited and put your best foot forward.”
The New Zealand squad leaves for Europe on Friday, July 10.
They will take part in a New Zealand, Australia and Ireland tri-series just north of Belfast, which will serve as preparation for the Commonwealth Games.
“It will be good for us to see how they play, how they communicate, what their sort of strategies are on those surfaces over there,” Wheeler said.
