Hong Kong success yet to sink in for Nelson
The 2024 World Bowls Junior Indoor Championships brought the ultimate success for Right at Home Jackaroo Kane Nelson, who clean swept the tournament with gold in the men’s singles and mixed pairs with Kira Bourke.
Losing just two matches throughout the entire week, the Queensland native is still comprehending the enormity of his success in Hong Kong.
Speaking to Bowls Australia’s (BA) ‘The Right Line’ podcast, Nelson admits the sense of relief has outweighed anything else in the immediate aftermath of one of the biggest events of his career.
“Honestly it’s just relief, we’ve put in so much work going into it and to get the results like we did is just awesome,” he said.
“I was so stressed when I was out there on the greens, everything was going the tiebreakers and it was tense, so to finish it off and get the two wins was amazing.
“I feel like you need things going your way and set play and most of the things went my way thankfully, the rub of the green was sort of there for me
“It definitely hasn’t sunk in and I doubt whether it actually will. I can’t believe it.”
In terms of a confidence boosting week, this is certainly one of the largest that the 20-year-old has enjoyed and he hopes to ride the wave as long as he can.
His support network throughout the week of Bourke, coach Ian Ewing (JR), brother Jacob and best friend Cody Gerick also provided some much needed guidance across some gruelling days.
“It’s definitely a massive confidence boost for myself, especially in singles.
“I don’t really play too much singles and I’m probably not the most confident in the format so I was happy to get a singles win.
“It helped just having such a good connection with the team like JR was awesome as coach and he’s such a chilled guy to go away with, while Kira and I created a really good bond and had a great time on the green, which helped heaps.” Nelson added.
“Having all the support there with them with my brother Jacob and best mate Cody too just gave me plenty of confidence and hopefully I take that in the future events as well.”
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