WELLINGTON (Reuters) – Bleary-eyed New Zealanders celebrated a weekend of sporting triumphs around the world on Monday and for once there was not a rugby ball in sight.
Team New Zealand’s retention of sailing’s America’s Cup got the streak rolling in the early hours of Sunday morning local time, and it continued until the White Ferns cricketers lifted the Women’s Twenty20 World Cup as Monday dawned in the South Pacific.
In between, there was a once-in-a-generation test win for the men’s Black Caps cricket team in India, and a stunning 64-50 upset victory for the Silver Ferns netball team against world champions and fierce rivals Australia.
A less celebrated triumph came on Sunday in Zhejiang province, China, where the Paddle Ferns canoe polo team won the women’s world title with a 6-1 win over Italy.
“I think this was a weekend that will go down in New Zealand’s sporting annals,” Sports Minister Chris Bishop said in a statement.
“All five teams should know that their country is enormously proud of them and I think Kiwi sports fans can be forgiven if they’re caught yawning at work today.”
Although best known in the sporting world as the home of the three-times world champion All Blacks rugby union team, New Zealand has long punched above its weight in international competition.
With 10 gold and 20 total medals in Paris earlier this year, the country enjoyed its best showing at a Summer Olympics in 116 years of competing at the multi-games showpiece.
While the America’s Cup victory in Barcelona was a third for Team New Zealand, the Twenty20 World Cup triumph in Dubai was a first for the nation in cricket’s shortest format, women or men.
“I’m really hopeful that tonight’s victory can inspire the next generation, not just of young girls but young boys as well, to pick up a cricket bat, a cricket ball,” said captain Sophie Devine.
“Hopefully what we’ve been able to achieve tonight will be longstanding and long-reaching. Everyone loves a winner, don’t they?”
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said at his weekly media conference on Monday that the teams had made five million New Zealanders incredibly proud.
“Great, great weekend to remember,” he said.
(Reporting by Lucy Cramer, writing by Nick Mulvenney in Sydney, editing by Peter Rutherford)
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