The peerless cyclist created history in Birmingham yesterday when he became the first New Zealand athlete to win four gold medals at one Commonwealth Games.
Gate (31) won the men’s road race, completing a remarkable campaign in which he had already banked golds on the track in the points race and team and individual pursuit events.
He battled cramp and chased down a bunch of road racing specialists as he confounded those who thought winning the 160km road race after such a full track schedule was a pedal too far.
Even Gate, who had said before the race he expected to merely play a support role to his fresher New Zealand team-mates, was surprised to find himself with another gold.
"My confidence just grew from event to event, but I did think I was going into this event to help my team-mates as I’d had my moment in the limelight and was just happy to do whatever it took to get a Kiwi on the top step of the podium."
Gate had earlier become the fourth New Zealander to win three gold medals at one Commonwealth Games, joining Otago athletics great Yvette Williams (1954), cyclist Gary Anderson (1990), weightlifter Darren Liddel (1998) and former Mt Aspiring College pupil Ellesse Andrews, who also won three golds in Birmingham. Now he stands alone.
"It’s a massive honour. It’s very prestigious and hopefully will be the standard and the challenge for Kiwis in the future to try and break."
Gate’s gold medal was New Zealand’s 18th in Birmingham, breaking the country’s record of 17 set in Auckland in 1990.
That later became 19 when squash stars Paul Coll and Joelle King won the mixed doubles final, and was potentially going to reach the 20 mark as King and partner Amanda Landers-Murphy were in the women’s doubles final overnight.
