Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Sport Podcast with Jason Vine
Speaker 1: from News Talks B.
Speaker 2: James mcconey, as always, is with us on a Sunday
Speaker 2: up in Glasgow covering the Commonwealth Games as part of
Speaker 2: Sky Sports coverage. Good to Chat he has always James,
Speaker 2: how good was Eliza McCartney's gold in the women's pole vault?
Speaker 3: Well, it's just incredible the perseverance shown, right, And this
Speaker 3: is this is somebody who every time I see her,
Speaker 3: she's you know, battling in Achilles' injury and I mean
Speaker 3: she's still the achilles is still a problem, but she's
Speaker 3: just learned to manage it and it's come back and
Speaker 3: just been world class.
Speaker 4: And she's just a class act anyway.
Speaker 3: You know, she's getting fluenced in today or mahldy, she's
Speaker 3: she's just a ray of sunshine and so and also
Speaker 3: not only a hero to Imogen Harris, but her mentor
Speaker 3: as well. Now so and I'm sure Olivia mctaggett feels
Speaker 3: the same way. So hard luck for Love missing out
Speaker 3: because she is a really top performer as well.
Speaker 4: But just seeing Eliza do.
Speaker 3: That with with image in there just shows that in
Speaker 3: terms of what our strongest event is it probably is
Speaker 3: right up there women's poll.
Speaker 2: Vot absolutely yeah, So a golden, a bronze there and
Speaker 2: then a silver for Tory Morby in the in the
Speaker 2: women's javelin. Had the chance to do a couple of
Speaker 2: events with Tory Morby. What an impressive person she is.
Speaker 2: But great to see her on the podium as well
Speaker 2: with silver and the women's javelin.
Speaker 3: I know, it's just so great because she she dabbled
Speaker 3: with leaving she's toying with leaving javelin last year.
Speaker 4: She wanted to. She played cricket last summer.
Speaker 3: She was playing for the Northern Brave and women's team
Speaker 3: and the I think was the b team there for
Speaker 3: a while, but they were really hopeful.
Speaker 4: That she's going to stick it.
Speaker 3: Obviously could bowl very very far and throw very far
Speaker 3: from the boundary, so you know there were certain things,
Speaker 3: you know, just liking the way that she is making
Speaker 3: those strides.
Speaker 4: But then she sort of managed to find a way
Speaker 4: back throwing the javelin and falling in love with it again.
Speaker 4: So good on it.
Speaker 3: For doing it, and you know, seeing her success and
Speaker 3: that of Zoey Hobbs, who's from Stratford and Taranaki of
Speaker 3: course tories from Gore down in Southland. It does remind
Speaker 3: me of you know that song by Journey, Don't stop believing.
Speaker 3: You know, yep, just a small town girl and so
Speaker 3: you know, living in the lonely world and then just
Speaker 3: basically catching them in night train. But you know the
Speaker 3: one thing that they don't do, Piney, they don't stop believing.
Speaker 2: Okay, there is the secret to it all. Don't stop
Speaker 2: believing small town boys and girls. Anything is possible. Hey,
Speaker 2: we've heard the Australian national anthem far too many times,
Speaker 2: but we're not to hear at the net ball Jamaica
Speaker 2: beat them in the semis.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know, jamaking me crazy. That is just one
Speaker 3: of those things. If I heard the Jamaican fans singing
Speaker 3: no Jamaica, no Part, and I was going, that's quite
Speaker 3: good from them. And look, the Silver fans are in
Speaker 3: a great shot. I think Grace and Wiki is just
Speaker 3: an incredible goal shooter and you know, as long as
Speaker 3: she's out there on the court, I think the New
Speaker 3: Zealand's got a good chance for gold.
Speaker 4: So it's pretty cool to see. And look the Aussies.
Speaker 3: Last time I saw on the medal table that was
Speaker 3: fifty nine gold, so you know they've done all right.
Speaker 2: They have. As the curtain comes down on the Glasgow events.
Speaker 2: It's been shortened of course, and that was because of
Speaker 2: the short time frame that Glasgow had to organize it
Speaker 2: after Victoria or Melbourne pulled out. What sense do you get,
Speaker 2: James about the future of this event of the Commonwealth Games.
Speaker 3: I think it's I think it's been revised nicely. It's
Speaker 3: been trimmed down. I think there's probably because of the
Speaker 3: short notice they couldn't. You know, you can see there's
Speaker 3: a lack of outdoor sports, so I think athletics felt
Speaker 3: like it was the only thing that was on outdoors
Speaker 3: and and I.
Speaker 4: Think they could probably add a few back in.
Speaker 3: I think triathlon needs to come back in and some
Speaker 3: of the distance.
Speaker 4: Events, so I'd like to see that happen. I think
Speaker 4: the next edition is going to be in India. I
Speaker 4: think New Zealand could actually host upon Wealth Games.
Speaker 3: They'd have to share it around a bit, but it's
Speaker 3: definitely doable. You know, we've got we've got a valodrome,
Speaker 3: we've got that there's there's a couple of pools that
Speaker 3: could be used or expanded and really it's just the
Speaker 3: price of working out where to have the athletics, right.
Speaker 3: But I think there's enough big venues in New Zealand
Speaker 3: if I'm happy to let a country hoster. I think
Speaker 3: New Zealand should put a bit in that. That's my feeling,
Speaker 3: and the Commonwealth Games at the size it is at
Speaker 3: the moment is possibly about right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I totally agree, and I hope that that that
Speaker 2: that has investigated the ability of a country to host
Speaker 2: the Commonwealth Games. And yeah, I think New Zealand should
Speaker 2: definitely get their their hat in that ring. A couple
Speaker 2: of other matters I wanted to get your thoughts on.
Speaker 2: You're following the Gianni Infantino FIFA saga.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I don't know how I feel about
Speaker 3: Johnny and Fantino because when you look at previous and
Speaker 3: then set blesser, Infantino is a massive upgrade. You know,
Speaker 3: he wasn't there for those those terrible years of just
Speaker 3: blatant corruption and by all those different you call them delegates,
Speaker 3: but they are terrible, you know, you chuck blazers and
Speaker 3: I forget the guy from Trinidad.
Speaker 4: You'll remember his.
Speaker 2: Name, Jack Warner was it.
Speaker 4: That's right, Warner.
Speaker 3: Base that they built an entire high performance football academy.
Speaker 3: But he is funny enough. He owned the land that
Speaker 3: it was on, so it became his. And so look,
Speaker 3: this is the whole thing with FIFA. Infantino years clumsy.
Speaker 3: His relationship with Trump is regrettable, and giving a peace
Speaker 3: prize to Trump is just absolute madness. But at the
Speaker 3: same time, this thing is all about commerce. He wanted
Speaker 3: to privatize or self sell off some of the World
Speaker 3: Cup and look, maybe they need to find a way
Speaker 3: to inject more money into the game because like most
Speaker 3: those or most of those organizations, world rugby is the same.
Speaker 4: The World Cup is everything. That's where the money comes from,
Speaker 4: and they've got huge expenses covering everything else. So look,
Speaker 4: he's going to back down.
Speaker 3: I don't know if there'll be a coup, but let's
Speaker 3: just hope that the next person is less weird than
Speaker 3: in Fantina.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's hope. So that's quite a low Barber, So
Speaker 2: we'll see what happens. I always good to chet to you, James,
Speaker 2: Loving your coverage as part of Sky's coverage of the
Speaker 2: of the Commonwealth Games go well for the rest of it, mate,
Speaker 2: and look forward to catching up at around about the
Speaker 2: same time next week.
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