Labour leader David Shearer says there’s no shame in silver.
“The Australians appear to be struggling with their bridesmaid status in so many Olympic events but there is no shame in silver,” he said.
“If you’ve trained and prepared, got your policy straight (or not if we’re talking about marriage), delivered your lines without hesitation and given your all, you’ve done your best and can do nothing about being beaten by someone who does it better.”
He was commenting on the results of the TV3 and TV1 poll vaults in which he and his party came a distant second to the National team led by long-time rival John Key.
Shearer showed no disappointment in managing only 8.9 percent, 2.3 percent down on his previous outing in the TV3 individual event, the Preferred Prime Minister race and dropping 1% to 13 in the equivalent TVNZ competition.
He brushed off questions over individual members of the team which reached only 30.8% in the TV3 cross-country falling 2.3 percent short of the score it achieved last month and gaining only 32% percent, slightly less than it managed in the TV1 team pursuit.
However, Shearer admitted it didn’t help that some members of the team were running their individual races, others scored own goals and at times the team appeared to lose its way completely.
“But we can be pleased with what we’ve done in spite of that,” he said.
“Silver is still a precious metal, it’s nice and shiny and a medal is a medal. It means we’re better than all the rest except National and being better than everyone except the best is still an achievement of which we can be proud.
“Besides, you have to keep in mind these are only trials. We’ve still got more than two years until the main event and I’m confident that our training programme will ensure we’re fit and reaching peak performance when it really matters. Some of our team are tiring and it’s likely we’ll have some fresh blood coming on as impact players before we head to the final straight.
“It’s no secret that we’ve some work to do on team cohesion, rowing in unison, heading in the same direction and taking the public with us. But these aren’t insurmountable hurdles, we might not be winning the sprint but we’ve still got a chance in the marathon.”
Bit of a difference in relativity to gold between his silver and the Olympic silvers. Take the women’s triathlon silver for instance.
I never subscribe to the silver medal as the 1st loser in Olympic or world competition theory, as it is a worthy result on a world stage.
However in this national, or should that be, National contest with the opposition effort albeit sporadic disjointed although well funded, I will break with that summary for Shearers current silver performance.
1st loser is quite apt, and the Party strategist;s activity in the parliament is clearly seen by the judges as counter productive.
His misguided tactics that saw him ridiculed even by some of the more strategic thinkers in the management team are appalling.
Yes there are a few of the bright eyed bushy tailed hanging on every word in apparent awe but sometimes when the camera pans to some of the more mature in the team, the body language is ‘what’, ‘why’, ‘how’, and noooooo!
As for Casper, if invisible is the strategy then save the money spent on air brushing, media training, fees and fares and settle for more research and team training.
@ Lindsay, it is not THAT close, sorry.
In a contest that seems ideally suited to major gains for the wool harvester, the latest interim update is disappointing if not devastating but then it could be another rogue, wrong phones, or a large margin of error.
Yes the socialists will come back, that is a given but not yet it seems.