Four medals including gold for NZ bowlers

The New Zealand bowls contingent will return home with a total of four medals - a gold, two silvers and a bronze - from an eight-nations tournament in India.

The event played in sweltering summer heat at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi, served as a test event for October's Commonwealth Games when the climatic conditions are not expected to be as severe.

New Zealand men's pair Richard Collett and Dan Delany took the gold medal after beating Australians Brett Wilkie and Aron Sherriff 9-5 9-8 in the final.

Ali Forsyth picked up a silver in the men's single after losing the final 8-9 4-10 to Malaysian world No 1 Safuan Said.

New Zealand's other silver medal was delivered by Andrew Todd, Andrew Kelly and Richard Girvan in the men's triples.

Todd, Kelly and Girvan lost 4-6 2-9 to England's Robert Newman, Graham Shadwell and Sam Tolchard in the final.

In the women's singles playoff for the bronze medal, New Zealand's Val Smith beat South African Helen Grundlingh.

Smith lost 9-11 2-11 in the semifnals to Malaysia's Siti Zalina Ahmad who went on to win the gold medal.

England and Malaysia shared top honours in the medal tally with two golds and a bronze medal each followed by New Zealand.

The other teams competing were South Africa, Australia, India, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

- NZPA