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VOL 26 • NO.30
What a week for Richie!
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marleen Ohms
A Commonwealth Games gold medal, a wedding, and then chosen as New Zealand’s flagbearer for the closing ceremony - it’s been a stunning few days for Pollok’s golden boy, Richie Patterson.
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As former Pollok Primary School student Richie Patterson hoisted 184kg above his head in an arena in Glasgow, 17,863 kilometres away his older sister Jane could feel every sinew strain and muscle twitch. “I was lifting it with him,” Jane said afterwards with a laugh, and she speaks from experience, having been a masters weightlifter herself, and a proud supporter of her ‘little’ brother for many years. Jane, who teaches at Waiuku College, was unable to travel to Glasgow to watch Richie, but says her parents Jock and Julia, along with other sisters Amy and Sarah, were there to cheer him on. Also in Glasgow was Richie’s fiancee Pip Hale, and Richie added to an amazing week when he and Pip were married in a stunning castle setting in Glasgow. Then, as if things were not already golden, Richie was chosen as the flagbearer for the New Zealand team in yesterday’s closing ceremony; one of the greatest honours a team can pay. It was an incredible Games for New Zealand, as High Performance Sport New Zealand Chief Executive Alex Baumann said when he paid tribute to a team which won 45 medals, with an impressive 14 golds. But for many, their stand-out moment off the games was that dramatic final lift by Richie. Glasgow was his third Commonwealth Games after he com-
peted at the 2006 Melbourne Games and 2010 Delhi games where he placed second, something which Jane says motivated him to come back and get that elusive gold. Richard has also competed at two Olympic games, Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012 where he placed 14th. The sport has been his whole
life, Jane says simply. “The Commonwealth Gold has been his dream since he was 14 or 15 years old. It was so sad to see him get silver last time, and this year he was clearly above everyone else, I knew he could do it. I was just about crying - he really deserved it,” she said. Jane says that win required incredible determination; as
well as training, he also coaches young elite lifters, and has established a training business called Functional Strength. The commitment to manage that work load and train for a gold medal is inspirational, she says, and, like the rest of the nation, she is simply delighted with a success that is so richly deserved.
Below; the NZ flag flew over the long-closed Pollok School as a tribute to Richie Patterson last week.
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