INVERMAY lawn bowler Rebecca Van Asch finished her 2016 World Bowls Championships campaign in perfect fashion on Saturday.
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The 28-year-old skippered the Australian women’s triples team to a 17-6 victory over Wales in Christchurch, New Zealand, to claim her second gold medal of the tournament. The 2012 world pairs title winner led good friends Carla Krizanic and Natasha Scott to glory after an extra end win over South Africa in the semi-final.
The trio, who were all involved in the women’s fours triumph over England last weekend, started well with the green and gold contingent racing away to an 11-1 lead after seven ends.
“We came here wanting to make the final, which we did, so we’re wrapped to go back-to-back,” Van Asch said.
“Throughout the championships our starts have been really good so we wanted to keep that form going and maintain it.
“We knew that Wales would keep fighting back, so it was a matter of us trying to get as many in there as we could and play defensively when we needed to.”
The result marks the nation’s 15th gold medal win in the history of the women’s event. Van Ash said lots of hard work and preparation had gone into ensuring her championships were successful. “It (winning the triples) was the icing on the cake. I came over to play two disciplines and to come away with world titles in both is unbelievable,” she said.
“I don’t think the first one or the fours have sunk in and now this one – it’s very surreal.
“I had a hard couple of years trying to work my way back into the Aussie team so to comeback, get into the team and be able to perform like this is certainly very satisfying.
“We (her teammates) spent a lot of time together in the six months leading in, playing events and working hard together to be at our peak for this… so to win the fours together was unreal and to get the triples as well is very, very special.”
Van Ash said she was confident leading into her second world championships after taking out the $15,000 women’s Australian Open pairs title with Anne Johns in June.
She said her focus would now quickly switch to the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.
“That is going to be here before we know it, it’s less than 18 months away,” she said.
“I’ll enjoy this for the rest of this year and from the start of 2017 my focus will be about the Commonwealth Games and trying to make the team for that.”
Overall, Australia enjoyed its most successful world championships abroad with the Jackaroos securing four gold, two silver and one bronze medal – two less medals than the all-time record set four years ago.
Seven Jackaroos will return home as world champions with Krizanic, Scott and Van Asch dual winners, while Kelsey Cottrell, Karen Murphy, Brett Wilkie and Aaron Wilson also collected a title.
Van Asch will fly back into Launceston on Monday.