REBECCA Van Asch is now a dual world champion following the Australian women’s fours victory over England in New Zealand on Saturday.
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The Invermay lawn bowler and 2012 world pairs title winner teamed up with Kelsey Cottrell, Carla Krizanic and Natasha Scott to defeat their rivals 23-8 in the World Bowls Championships final in Christchurch.
The quartet’s lead was so great the match was called off with two ends to play after the Jackaroos collected four shots on the 16th end – handing England their first loss of the tournament.
“It’s very surreal. We were always in front but it only would have taken England to get a number on us and all of a sudden they would have been back in the game,” Van Asch, 28, said.
“We had a game plan going in and wanted to stick to it regardless of who our opponents were and we knew they if we continued the way we had been playing that we were going to be hard to beat.”
The gold medal-winning effort is the country’s first of the 34-nation event, which runs until December 11.
The championships did not start well for the Australian four, losing three of their first four rounds before selectors made the call to hand Cottrell leading duties and Scott the reins as skip.
The team went on to win their next five sectional victories, which gave them a post-sectional berth in third-place. They then defeated Scotland 17-8 in the elimination-final and New Zealand 27-9 in the semi before being crowned world champions.
“It was a disappointing start for us and the four of us knew we weren’t playing as well as any of us could and we couldn’t afford to lose anymore games so it was worth making a change,” Van Asch said.
“Kelsey leading and Carla playing second really set it up for Tash and I and the back and they were almost flawless.”
Van Asch, who will skip the national women’s triples starting on Tuesday with Krizanic and Scott, said the trio could not afford to be complacent with on “50 per cent” of the job done.
She said it would be a shame to finish the championships with only two titles to her name.
“We are all trying to keep our feet firmly placed on the ground knowing that we have still got a big job ahead of us,” Van Asch said.
“We have got two days off now… so we will bask in the glory tonight (Saturday) and then start to get our heads around our next disciplines.
“We obviously know each other's game inside out so we will discuss a few strengths that we think can get us through.
“We have done all the preparation back home and now we just need to put it into action.”
The women’s fours was the only discipline in 2012 that Australia failed to medal in with the Jackaroos a chance to break their own World Bowls Championships medal record of five gold and two silver. Cottrell and Van Asch prevailed in the women’s pairs four years ago, while Scott was part of the winning triples team.