ITS THE medal Wayne Thomson has been building up to since 2013, when he won bronze at the last World Blind Bowls Championships.
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Now the Newee Creek champion has brought gold home from Cape Town.
“I’m not sure it has completely sunk in yet,” the B1 bowler, which means he is in the ‘totally blind’ category, said.
“It was a lot of hard work – it takes a lot of practice, you need to develop a mental system and be consistent.”
Wayne, who first started losing his sight when he was eight years-old said he came to bowling when he and his wife Lynne moved to the area in 2003.
“It is not easy to find things to link into but I found this was something I could do.”
Of course it could not happen at all without Lynne, who is his bowls whisperer or ‘director’.
“Wayne is told how many metres away the jack is and then I tell him which direction to point his arm and his foot,” Lynne said.
“He makes the judgement as to how hard or soft to bowl the ball and takes into account the differences between greens.”
Wayne was particularly thrilled with this win because he beat his ‘arch rival’, New Zealander David Monk, who beat him at the last World Championships and also at the Trans Tasman competition in February.
“Wayne has won four times and so has David – so now it is eight all.