Squash star Paul Coll slumped to the court in relief and delight after delivering the West Coast a rare Commonwealth Games gold medal after a comeback win in a five-set 95-minute marathon.
The 30-year-old world No 2 survived a setback in the first game to beat Wales’ world No 7 Joel Makin in Birmingham 3-11, 11-9, 8-11, 11-8, 11-7 on Wednesday (Thursday NZ time) and become New Zealand’s first male Commonwealth Games squash champion.
It capped a stellar year for Coll, who defended his British Open in April after his break-through win in 2021.
The Greymouth product now joins another athlete from the wider West Coast region – netballer Anna Harrison – as a Commonwealth Games champion. Harrison (nee Scarlett), born and raised in Karamea in the Buller district, won back-to-back Games gold medals in Melbourne in 2006 and Delhi in 2010.
Coll beat Makin, a 27-year-old from Pembrokeshire, in a tough five-setter in the 2018 Commonwealth Games semifinal before losing the final to England’s James Willstrop.
The pair produced another thriller four years later, one worthy of an All Blacks-Wales test match.
Play was punctuated with breaks for two failed reviews while the court surface had to be mopped regularly after the players – sweating due to the Birmingham heat and the intensity of their rallies – tumbled to the deck.
Coll had won his previous encounters with the Welshman, but Makin raced out of the blocks in Birmingham, establishing a 4-0 lead after some bold attacking shots.
Down 6-2, Coll had a brief break to change his socks, but failed to pull them up, metaphorically, on his return, dropping the first four points after the resumption. Coll reduced the gap to 10-3, but Makin closed out the first game, 11-3.
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Paul Coll shows his delight at winning his Commonwealth Games squash gold medal in Birmingham.
The second game was more cat-and-mouse with barely a point separating them through to 8-8.
Coll was up 10-8 when he called for a review of a decision denying him a penalty. His appeal was rejected by veteran referee James Massarella, but it only served to fire up Coll, who completed a 11-9 victory to tie the match with a beautiful sweeping shot.
Makin also lost a review at the start of the third game, but, with his dander up, he went out to a 2-0 advantage before Coll quickly pegged it back.
Two errors in a row from Makin gave the Coaster some breathing space before the gritty Makin came back to lead 7-6.
The Welshman never looked back, winning the third game 11-8, leading Coll to hurl his racquet in frustration.
Coll looked in control of the fourth game at 8-4, but Makin came back at home before Coll clinched it 11-8 to take the match into a nail-biting fifth and final game.
A partisan British crowd willed Makin on – particularly after he won an interminably long early rally, but Coll showed his composure to close it out 11-7 with a poise befitting a player accustomed to winning big tournament finals.
Makin kept fighting to the end, saving two match ball situations after determined rallies, but Coll just had a little extra class.
It was Coll’s third Commonwealth Games medal after his singles silver and mixed doubles bronze (with Joelle King) in 2018.
Meanwhile, Willstrop, the defending champion, missed the medals this time. The 38-year-old lasted just 33 minutes in losing the bronze medal match, 11-6, 11-1, 11-4, to India’s Sourav Ghosal, who Coll beat in the semifinals.
