Timoti eyes roll towards medals

Manu Timoti is hoping her Hikurangi bowling mates found something else to distract them after suffering her first loss at the Commonwealth Games bowls tournament in New Delhi.
Timoti and skip Jan Khan lost their unbeaten record at the Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Complex when they went down to Canada in a tight scoring clash 8-6 7-8 3-2. Trailing 0-3 in the third set tiebreaker, Khan needed a three with her final bowl to force sudden-death but could only peg back two.
The New Zealand men's triple kept their fate in their own hands with a straight-sets victory over Brunei, leaving Andrew Todd, Shannon McIlroy and skip Richard Girvan with a 3-2 win-loss record.
Timoti and Khan won their first four matches and remain in the race for the playoffs, which start on Sunday, after earlier beating Norfolk Island, Namibia, Botswana and South Africa. They play Zambia and the Cook Islands tonight.
For Timoti, it was a tough game in trying conditions, and she hoped not too many Northlanders tuned in to watch the action, with the New Zealanders elevated on to the televised rink.
"It definitely wasn't the result we were after," said the softly-spoken 32-year-old "but we kind of expected it because neither of us played well.
"We were only getting ones, nothing more, and it was a struggle. Even with that tiebreaker it's crucial to get the first end just for that bit of comfort.
"We lost the first and second ends to go (3-0) behind and it was uphill from there really."
The New Zealand bowlers have dealt with a tricky transition in Delhi, going from home greens, considered among the fastest in the world, to Jawaharlal's artificial surface, which is at the other end of the speed spectrum.
Timoti admitted she was still getting used to the surface, which wasn't even a typical artificial rink. "We have artificial in New Zealand but it's a thicker weave and back home the balls tend to glide over the top. This one they sink into the carpet and it makes it heavy, requiring more effort on delivery."
Khan is a former world champion and two-times games medallist. In 2006, she and sister Marina won pairs bronze, New Zealand's only bowls medal in Melbourne, a meagre return considering bowls has been responsible for 34 of New Zealand's Commonwealth medals since 1930.
Timoti, who works at Whangarei's Maori Land Court as a judge's PA, is keen to add to that tally.
"We're a medal shot, we're going for it. We've got two big ones tomorrow, and even though it's our first loss we're still in a comfortable position.
"We just can't afford another one from here."