- 10 Aug 08, 02:45 PM
Nicole Cooke pulled off the biggest victory of her life thanks to a combination of ability, tactical nous and sheer guts.
We knew she had the ability to win before the start in downtown Beijing, but in road cycling that's only one part of the equation.
It's a tactical sport and even if you are the strongest rider in the field, you won't necessarily win unless you ride intelligently.
Chase everything all day and you will be a spent force when it really matters.
Cooke had the benefit of two strong team-mates on the rain-sodden roads here.
Sharon Laws and particularly Emma Pooley were prominent near the front for much of the race to keep an eye on things, enabling Cooke to hide in the relative shelter of the pack in the early stages.
Pooley made a lone effort on the first lap of the two on the finishing circuit which helped to take the sting out of some of the others and also ensured that Cooke didn't need to chase and cover any moves.
Pooley's effort didn't pay off for her personally, but it did mean that Cooke only had to monitor moves for the final lap, which must have helped.
By the top of the big 12km long climb on the final lap, Cooke had put herself in a potentially winning position by being at the front in a group of five riders without having had to instigate the move herself.
The final 12kms were mostly downhill, so provided the break stayed away and she stayed upright on the treacherously wet roads, Nicole will have known she had the opportunity of a lifetime because she can sprint uphill and she's got guts.
There was momentary concern inside the last kilometre when she dropped about 20m behind the other four, but soon caught up and launched her bid for victory in the final 300 metres.
Cooke had to dig deep to hold off Emma Johannsson and Tatiana Guderzo, but her sheer desire took over in those final few glorious metres and the gold was hers.
A lifetime's sporting ambition fullfilled and in doing so Nicole has become the first British woman ever to win a cycling gold medal.
It all played out perfectly for her and she fully deserved her victory.
Her talent hasn't been in doubt for years now, but this is the big one.
As a junior she won four world titles in the space of 12 months. She won the road race two years running as well as a gold in the mountain bike cross country and road time trial. That was in 2000 and 2001.
Since then Nicole has been the big hope for Britain in women's road cycling, but left Athens disappointed with 5th place four years ago.
She has won the Women's Tour De France, Tour of Italy, the season long World Cup Competition twice and been world number one in recent years, while claiming a silver and two bronze medals in the senior road race championships.
But until today her only senior gold medal had been at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002.
She's completely eclipsed that now and will ensure her name is now heralded among a much wider sporting public, which is richly deserved.
Commentating on the race, I sensed she had a great chance but was also aware that the wet conditions had the potential to pose a problem at the bottom of the descent, so didn't want to tempt fate.
Describing her cliffhanging sprint to victory, and Britain's first medal of the Games, was a real thrill and I don't think I'll stop grinning for the rest of the day!
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Comments
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So, so proud of Nicole...she had me in tears! What guts and drive she has, an eaxmple for sportsmen and women everywhere. Finally she'll get the recognition she so deserves from the Brirish public.
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Congratulations!
It's a pitty your archers lost to the French with just one point. Hope they can still have some good time in Beijing if they are not heading back immediately.
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It was great to see a British "number one in the world" win a gold - it so rarely seems to happen in any sport other than cycling!
The Tour de France seems to prove that the winner of single stages need a lot of talent, a great deal of planning... and a bit of luck. Nicole could have finished fifth and not tried any harder, so it's great to see a bit of good fortune for once!
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Well done Nicole, great stuff. Definitely worth the sleep deprivation!
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Nice account, but what was the event? How far did she cycle?
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I'm not Brit but Chinese-in-UK. Wow, it's raining heavily in Berks, just like Beijing.
Well, I'd like to say...
Nicole, what a wonderful job u've done! Congratulations! It was a great achievement that undoubtedly you just won the toughest race in my homeland! Now it's time to enjoy your Beijing stay, with Britain's first gold (sooooooo great!).
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fspiers: It was the women's road race 'mass start'. There are two road race events for women, the 'mass start' which is of no particular distance, but was this year 70-odd miles long, gaining its name as all the riders start together, as in marathon or triathlon. The winner is the first one over the line (In this case, Nicole!)
The other road event is the 'time trial'. This takes place over a shorter course (again, there is no set distance though I'd be surprised if it were more than 15-20 miles). The riders start individually and the time it takes each one to do the course is noted: the one with the fastest time wins (think downhill skiing or slalom canoe)!
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Nicole was fabulous today.what a determined ride. I had the privilege of meeting her at the 2002 Commonwealth Games when she won road gold and i worked at the velodrome and Bolton where the race took place. she was lovely, hard working and genuinely proud and honoured to compete for her country.Olympic gold-WELL DONE!
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Nicole was tremendous - it looked like she'd gone a bit early in the sprint and was going to get nailed on the line, but she dug in and showed real grit and determination to achieve her goal - sport at it's best. Well done and congratulations Nicole.
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Just wanted to add a comment about the team reporting on the cycling event this morning. I thought the coverage was appaling, especially the comments at the end of the race.
The comment of: "I don't know what they (the Italian team) are celebrating about - Cooke won..."
This is typical of the sneering, xenophobic and condescening attitude of many of the reporters when it comes to competitors of other nations.
This is supposed to be the Olympics, where we are to enjoy sports and a sporting attitude. I guess this is too much for the British.
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Now that's how you win - pure guts and dreaming big!
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What a performance... mental courage and strength to stay in fourth or fifth without being panicked into covering attacks, physical talent to blast through the rain and win from leading them out with 300 to go... The whole of the last lap was riveting to watch someone so seemingly in control of the front of the race - brilliance.
Agree with 'WishFairnessForAll' about the false note struck as the camera alit on the Italian: she didn't think she'd won (as was very obvious as she crossed the line) and was soon wrapped up in the joy of medalling: a moment to savour the winning of a bronze not to make a pointed comment about the loss of a gold.
But overall the BBC should be praised for the balance of the coverage, as my American mother-in-law commented to me today: 'I can't believe how many of the other athletes you get to see on the coverage here...'
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In fairness to the commentary team, the false note, when they showed the Italian celebrating, was confusion because the caption incorrectly said that she'd won.
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Sorry gentlemen, I don't buy this 'confusion' angle - it was clear to everyone that Cooke had won and the Italian got 3rd. However, as usual with the BBC, no opportunity is missed to rubbish and belittle the competition and entertain a spot of xenophobia - In one word: pathetic.
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Sigh. Another poster takes offence at something (in this case 10,14) and takes the opportunity to bash "the British" / "the BBC" / "China" / etc. Can we not just comment on the incident or journalist in question without resorting to generalisations like this? The boards have been full of stuff like this.
And for those who hate the BBC so much, why come on here then? No I'm not British, but I'm really enjoying the sport during these games but some of these comments sadden me. So much for the world coming together.
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Agree with #12
The BBC show loads of sports that British competitors are not even involved in - that rarely happens in the US where if it doesn't involve an American with a chance of winning something then it doesn't exist!
They were interviewing the German dressage team earlier today!
Some peole just love to moan for the sake of it. If you don't want the commentary to be pro-British then simply don't watch the BBC and watch your own coverage.
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Nicole Cooke has been one of Britain's best sportspeople for a couple of years - (yet bizarrely ignored when voting for the BBC's Personality Of The Year).
Her gold medal will be one of the most well-deserevd of any British competitor in Beijing.
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pity wales and scotland don't have their own olympic teams. we'd be riding high now. instead of being shackled to the defunct bfitish state siphoning money as we speak for team gb to regenerate the richest city in europe and bleeding the rest of us dry for sebcoe and his self gratifying bunch of pirates to proclaim victory for gb (the coming recession will hopefully stop your gluttony)
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nice first medal for wales. obviously she'll be trumpeted as british having won. england always claim every positive sporting result under the banner of bfitain.
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I've had the good fortune to travel widely and live for extensive periods in four different countries on four different continents. I can state quite categorically that the BBC is recognised world wide as having the most impartial coverage around for news and sports. Try watching US or Australian TV and you could be accused of believing that the Olympics was their national champioships!
To WishFairnessForAll; Of course there is going to be some national pride, and quite rightly so. But you are hardly living up to your name with accusations of xenophobia.
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Maybe it's just because I'm English, and thus naturally have nothing to complain about in this regard, but I just can't understand the sentiments behind GOGinNEWPORT's comments. Sure, take pride in Nicole being Welsh, but, gee, a seperation the Union? Do you seriously think that the level of funding these Olympic atheletes receive from UK Sport would be able to be replicated to the same extent by seperate Eng, Wal and Sco boards?! The economics of a break in the Union overwhelmingly favour England, not just on a sporting but on a general political front as well. And BRITAIN always claims British victory- exactly the same as when an Englishman/woman wins, they'll say gold for GB, by x who comes from y, in the same way as Nicole, from Wales, has done so.
Apologies to others for the politcal slant on things- absolutely dead chuffed for Nicole, and also just now for Rebecca Adlington; stunning start to the games for GB. Mind you, when are the blokes going to get involved, ey? Letting the side down, chaps.
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As a Brit living in Delhi I can only dream of coverage such as from the BBC. Here the commentator didn't even spot Nicole and said the chase was between the final 4! We have one channel showing the Olympics and four showing re-runs of the cricket matches.
Seriously, they even cut away from a boxing bout yesterday before the result was given and I only found out the archery result from this site as they stopped coverage with 3 arrows to go.
Long live the BBC and well done Nicole!
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Watching the coverage, the commentator was clearly confused that they were showing the Italian cyclist as the caption for the winner came up - as you could tell from their comments, they were confirming for themselves that Nicole clearly took the line first when the TV coverage showed the finish again.
The TV feed was confused in the chaos, going to the bronze medal winner when you'd expect them to show the gold medal winner. The commentator was thrown, and for a moment thought the Italians were celebrating gold, when they were actually celebrating the bronze, because the feed said they were showing the winner.
I'd say it looks like some people are so determined to accuse the BBC of xenophobia that they see it when it isn't there.
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What a fabulous win in such treacherous conditions - we all (here in Bridgend county and the Vale) knew Nicole was up to it and have been following her career closely for years.
At last the Glamorgan Gazette can print the headline it's always wanted to. :-)
A delight to see her mum and dad's smiles on the news this morning. We're tickled pink for them all.
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Absolutely brilliant result. I've followed her career since she won the world championship as a seventeen year old. Seeing her joy on the line brought tears to my eyes. I have to echo comments about the BBC coverage. I'm stuck with American forces coverage and most of the time you would hardly know anyone else is competing,very shallow, very partisan. As an Englishmen I cheer for England when England compete as a country and Great Britain at the appropriate time. I also cheer for the other UK countries, but some comments like the ones posted here makes that very hard.
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PS. Well done also to Emma Pooley and Sharon Laws, let's not forget it is a team sport.
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Amazing result! Great for GB to win gold so early into the games. Let's not forget that in Atlanta 12 years ago we only managed a solitary gold medal. Since Nicole's victory the team have struck gold for a second time, on this occasion in the pool - fantastic! The fact that Nicole is Welsh is great for sport in the Prinicipality. Does anyone know the last Welsh person to win Olympic gold? Those of you who feel resentment towards this show of Welsh patriotism should relax. We have very little to cheer about in Welsh sports on a global level. I feel sure that a majority of the Welsh population will also be cheering for English, Scottish and Irish athletes, as we unite under the banner of GREAT BRITAIN!
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Quite right the Welsh should cheer Nicole's wonderful win. The comments I have a problem with are 18 and 19.
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I've never been involved in cycling in any way, but over the last few years it seems to have received more media coverage with the British riders doing so well in the Tour de France and the World and Commonwealth Championships, and I have to say I think it makes a tremendous spectator sport for TV. For me it has everything: style and grace, deep tactics, teamwork, speed, aggression, thrills and spills, physical effort, and sheer guts and determination. And Nicole Cook and her British teammates epitomised all of this. It is the reward for many years commitment and dedication, not to mention skill and ability, that we armchair spectators can hardly begin to appreciate. It was a fantastic effort and great to watch.
PS Has anybody explained what happened to make Nicole dop off the leading group so near to the finish.
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Wow Nicole! I think I pedaled avery cadence with you. Well done. All of Wales, and Britain are so proud of you. Hopefully this will now encourage the rest of the cycling team. I can't wait.
Well done again!
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rhannay, comment no. 26: No, the women's cycle race is NOT a team sport, but an individual event. HOWEVER, the other 2 British girls, knowing from the outset that they probably had little chance of winning a medal, volunteered (in discussions amongst the GB cycling team well before the event, I think they agreed that whoever was in the best position would get full support from the other 2) to help Nicole win the gold medal for GB, so from that angle it was a super team effort. Nicole must now be a serious candidate for BBC SPOTY, but it makes me wonder whether the other 2 should also be serious contenders, because their sacrifice was perhaps the ultimate sporting behaviour?
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Nicole did a fantastic job. Hopefully that will give an even bigger lift to the rest of Team GB.
And I think it is completely wrong saying that the English always claim the victory under the banner of GB. The BBC yesterday made it perfectly clear that Nicole is Welsh. It is always the case that the English are more than happy to support Welsh, Scottish and Irish teams/athletes, but the Welsh and Scots are never happy for the English. Just look at Andy Murray. You would thing that as Great Britain we can all celebrate our success together. Its a shame some people don't want to.
And as for the BBC being xenophobic and sneering at the opposition. If you actually listen to ANY of the commentators and pundits, they are always full of respect and admiration for the fantastic athletes at these Games. Never a bad word said.
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As a Taff aand a competitive cyclist I take great exception to the shameful coments by a fellow Welshman regarding Wales/Scotland/GB...
This is The Olympics FFS where we all compete under the Union Jack. If you don't appreciate that simple fact, don't watch..
I couldn't care less where the Brit competitors are from, I just want them all to win at whatever they are competing in...
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I think the Chinese spent so much cash on the opening ceremony there was non left over to actually cover the cycle race properly. At the crucial point (where Ms Cooke seemed to disappear) we got a shot from above but a tree was in the way! Did they get the cameraman from Acorn Antiques to do this?
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What a fantastic win for Wales/Britain. I fully support comment 21 even though I am completely dedicated to the Welsh cause - however, this is the olympics and we all need to support and cheer all of our competitors. So Huge congrats to Emma and Sharon who showed what true olympic team spirit is and shame on the dope cheat who went home earlier.
Come on Cav, etc
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rogwin: "PS Has anybody explained what happened to make Nicole dop off the leading group so near to the finish."
Nicole explained this in a post-race interview, saying that she wanted to be cautious around the last corner, as it was slippy, and she knew that noone else would want to take it on from so far out, uphill. So, it was a calculated risk that paid off beautifully.
Poor Hugh Porter didn't know where to put himself, he was in such a panic. He thought she had blown it, but he should have remembered the finish to Manchester 2002, where she came back from her near-crash after getting on the wrong side of an adverse camber. There, the lead bunch looked at each other, hesitated, and Nicole stormed past them for the win.
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Taff Chris - last Welsh gold medal winner before Nicole Cooke? I think it was Richard Meade in the equestrian events in 1972.
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GOGinNEWPORT. Perhaps it was the typical South Wales weather of intermittent drizzle and heavy rain that helped.
I imagine she has had much more epxereince of riding up and down hils in the wet than say the Spanish or Italians.
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Comment 31. "Not a team sport."
Read the words of Emma Pooley August 7th.
"This is arguably the strongest women's road race TEAM we've ever sent to the Olympics. We know that sacrifices are going to have to be made on the road race-it's part of the job really-we are individuals but we have to put the TEAM first. Sometimes you have to sacrifice personal glory for the greater good of TEAM success and we're all 100 percent committed to doing that.
The course in Beijing suits this TEAM-we're all good climbers and there are are some long uphill slopes so hopefully we can use that to our advantage against some of our rivals."
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Firstly congratulations to Nicole on a fantastic victory. A victory long overdue to one of our top athletes and talents. Nicole is always a great ambassador for her country whether she is representing Wales or Great Britain.
Congratulation to Emma Pooley and Sharon Laws who both had excellent races. In particular Emma by taking the sting out of the competitors on the first lap with her break away and thus helping Nicole.
This leads me on to comment number 31. whilst it is an individual road race if Emma had managed to stay away then Nicole would not chase, she would have sacrificed the title to Emma. This is how the team works in this type of scenario.
Also congratulations to Julian Winn who has done so much with the women's team since taking charge.
Secondly the coverage of the race was excellent. How often do you see a road race from start to finish? Regarding the comments by Hugh Porter at the end, this is quite understandable. He would have had doubts in his mind that an Italian rider had gone away without being captured by the cameras. Personally I think that both commentators did exceptionally well. The only small error by Hugh was his pronunciation of Llangynidyr where Emma won a stage of the Ras De Cymru - quite excusable!
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Fantastic by Nicole, Emma and Sharon.
If you could not see it is a team sport look at the way Nicole searches out the others to thank them at the end.
As for the careful corner at the end in no small part I'm sure Nicole wanted the other four to go for it up the hill so they all did not spend too much time looking at each other and get swamped by the chasers. Pretty audacious and confident although she was by far the strongest of the five and the rest knew it, if she had stayed with them at the end then they would have worked collectively to try and stop her using her sprint. By getting them to try early to beat up the hill she outgassed them - very clever.
As for Hugh - he did a great job the tv coverage at the end was pretty awful wasn't it
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Superb victory Nicole, you have made all of Wales proud, unlike the comments from GoginNewport who shame your achievements!
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GoginNewport said "pity wales and scotland don't have their own olympic teams. we'd be riding high now. instead of being shackled to the defunct bfitish state siphoning money as we speak for team gb to regenerate the richest city in europe and bleeding the rest of us dry for sebcoe and his self gratifying bunch of pirates to proclaim victory for gb (the coming recession will hopefully stop your gluttony)"
and "nice first medal for wales. obviously she'll be trumpeted as british having won. england always claim every positive sporting result under the banner of bfitain."
Yes, Wales would be riding high wouldn't we - just where would the likes of Nicole get her funding from if Wales was an independent country? Wales does very well from being a part of the Union.
I agree to a certain extent with the second quote but not in the case of the Olympics where competitors are representing GB not Wales or Scotland so its irrelevant.
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Well done Nicole.
However I would like the BBC to stop giving so much credit for our cycling performances to Dave Brailsford. This quote from a previous BBC article is factually inaccurate:
"Brailsford masterminded Britain’s nine gold medals at the track cycling world championships in March this year, and followed that up with three gold medals at last weekend’s mountain bike worlds."
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/7475579.stm]
Dave Brailsford and British Cycling had nothing to do with British success at the mountain biking World championships. Because they don;t understand the discipline.
Time and again athletes who show any talent at mountain biking are steered by British Cycling to the road or track disciplines. They failed to send any women to the 2006 Commonwealth Games, and only entered Amy Hunt for the race at the last minute because she was already out there for other events. They didn't learn from the outcry amongts mountain bikers and repeated the mistake in 2007 failing to take up the places available for women at the Fort William World Championships until, again, there was a grass roots campaing against them. In 2008 you'd think they'd have learnt, so how many women mountain bikers do you think have British Cycling sent to the Olympics?
None.
I can't help wondering if Nicole have been able to do as well if she'd stuck to the Mountain Biking. Certainly the support she received in the build up to these games from British Cycling wouldn't have been there.
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Err, Nicole won the Senior British Road Race championships at 16 years old nick3216.
As far as I am aware, she has never been a mountain biker. Not in competition anyway.
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Re comment 45 At 1:52pm on 11 Aug 2008, hockinsk wrote:
Err, Nicole won the Senior British Road Race championships at 16 years old nick3216.
As far as I am aware, she has never been a mountain biker. Not in competition anyway.
Nicole was Junior World Mountain Bike Champion (amongst many other titles) - quite a talent eh?
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Welsh xenophobia is fine as far as it goes GOGinNewport but don't forget that Nicole Cook and her colleagues have been supported by BRITISH Cycling and that Nicole's professional sponsor is Halfords - an ENGLISH company - who have willingly foregone the publicity arising from her usual crop of race wins to enable her to concentrate on her Olympic bid.
So it really is a GB victory.
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' If it's gold you want..... reach for it'
And thats excatly what Nicole did!
Well done Nicole! You have done both Wales and Great Britain proud!
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Well done to Nicole, superb effort
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