There were no prouder grandparents in Newcastle on Tuesday than Terry and Lyn Davies, who watched on from their lounge room at Warabrook as granddaughter Rose took out the women’s 10,000-metre race at the Commonwealth Games in Scotland.
The Merewether distance runner is the first Australian to claim gold in the event, reeling in runaway leader Diana Wanzar and ultimately winning by more than 10 seconds.
Kenyan runner Wanzar had opened up a huge lead with six laps remaining, but 26-year-old Davies surged to the front with two laps to go, finishing in a time of 31 minutes 39.32 seconds.
“Very proud, it’s a long road,” Terry said, after rising before dawn to watch the 5am race with his wife, both in their 70s.
“I remember taking her to her first race. Her mum and dad couldn’t go.
“She was only in primary school. We took her to a cross-country up at Lochinvar, the Catholic schools it was, she was going to Holy Family at the time.
“They had to do two laps, and when she came back she said: ‘What have I got to do now?’ They were all still going around the track. I said: ‘Well, that’s it, you’ve won.’
“That was the start of her career.”
Davies, who has competed in the past two Olympics – Tokyo and Paris – missed the 10,000 metres at the last Commonwealth Games in 2022 after contracting COVID-19, competing only in the 5000 metres.
It’s her first Commonwealth Games medal.
She is the Australian record-holder for both distances, and will compete in the 5000 metres on Thursday.
“After the race, Rose rang us, we spoke to her,” Terry said.
“Her mother and father, and her boyfriend, are over there.
“She was pumped up. She said she pulled up fine.
“But I don’t know if she’ll have anything left in the tank to back up so quick.
“When she hung up, she said: ‘I’m going to bed now’.”
Davies’ coach Scott Westcott, a teacher at Hunter Sports High School, said she was “confident she was in great shape” before the race.
“I held the same confidence, but you never know,” he said.
“The Kenyan that took it out hard with six laps to go made it a proper race.
“She really tried to blow the doors off everyone, and almost succeeded, but Rose was just incredibly strong and bridged the gap, I would say, with relative ease.
“She had to work hard, but she was ready to work hard.
“It’s super exciting.”
Westcott said Davies, as a full-time professional, runs about “140 to 160 kilometres a week, about 10 months of the year”.
Most of her training is done around Newcastle. She can often be spotted along the beach foreshore or the Fernleigh Track.
“It’s an insatiable appetite for success at this level,” he said.
“Her first Olympics was 2021, when she was 20, and she was second-last in her heat. She’d run out of puff in that campaign. She’d strived so hard to get the qualifier… but then her form dropped off.
“But to her credit, Rose has just persisted. She has avoided the temptation just to move up to the marathon or stick to doing easier events. She has really knuckled down and tried to become world-class at five and 10 kilometres.
“This is a testament to the last six years, really.
“She’s had her fair share of injuries … but she’s just been able to manage those really well. She has a great team around her.”
Post race on Tuesday, Davies said she had given it her all.
“I was running scared. Anything can happen and I had no idea where the girls were,” she said.
“I was trying to look at the big screen, but I was just going as hard as I could in the last hundred metres. Once I crossed the line I was very happy.”
Australia’s Lauren Ryan was in the mix for bronze, but had to settle for fifth.
The women’s 5000 metres is due to be held early Thursday morning.
Rose gold! Merewether star ‘running scared’ to stun the world and win historic race
Rose Davies was “running scared” but need not have been as she blitzed the field to create history as the first Australian woman to win Commonwealth Games gold in the 10,000m.
In the absence of Scottish icon Eilish McColgan, who didn’t overcome a toe injury in time to defend her title in Glasgow, Davies mowed down runaway leader Diana Wanza after the Kenyan had opened up a huge lead with six laps remaining.
Davies gradually reeled in her rival and surged to the front with two laps to go, pulling clear to win a tactical race in 31 minutes 39.32 seconds.
It was the 26-year-old’s first Games medal and despite an eventual winning margin of more than 10 seconds, she didn’t sense gold was secure until the final few strides.
“I was running scared. Anything can happen and I had no idea where the girls were,” Davies said.
“I was trying to look at the big screen, but I was just going as hard as I could in the last hundred metres. Once I crossed the line I was very happy.
“I could tell (Wanza) was slowing, but I wasn’t sure how much of a gap I had and I knew the race for third, they were coming too.
“They could’ve finished really fast so I was just still trying to run my race and run as fast as I could and finish really strong.”
Wanza claimed silver and Rwanda’s Florence Niyonkuru took bronze, narrowly ahead of Uganda’s Esther Chebet.
Wanza and Niyonkuru were first and second in the African championships this year.
Davies, who battled hip injuries early in her career, had to run a patient race and it paid huge dividends.
“(Wanza) did make a pretty hard move with six laps to go and I knew it was a long way out,” Davies said.
“I thought if I stayed relatively close I’d be able to close the gap, and that’s what I did.”
An ecstatic Davies, who will also contest the 5000m in Glasgow, was unaware until after the race that she was the first Australian to win the event.
“That’s crazy. I’m so happy. I didn’t know that, I just found that out then, so that’s really cool,” she said.
Australia’s Lauren Ryan was in the mix for bronze, but had to settle for fifth.
“I feel like I ran a really smart race and didn’t make any silly moves … but obviously watching a medal slip away is heartbreaking,” Ryan said.
“I’m pretty devastated and I think my family’s pretty devastated.”
Earlier, Australia’s Sarah Billings moved into the women’s 800m semi-finals with a comfortable win in her heat, stopping the clock at 2:01.51 to qualify second-fastest behind Kenya’s Lilian Odira (2:01.05).
Billings has been in career-best form, setting a new Oceania record (1:57.01) in Paris a month ago.
“It felt good,” the 28-year-old said.
“I’ve approached the champs as any other race, just like a Diamond League, trying not to build it up too much in my mind and just take it each round at a time.
“Now that the heat’s done, it’s a weight lifted up and I’m looking forward to the semis, but a semi in an 800 is never easy.”
Australian para athlete Ullrich Muller won silver in the men’s 100m T38 behind England’s Thomas Young.
This article has been produced by The Newcastle Herald.
