Ironman gusto 
Days after coming second in New Orleans, Aucklander Terenzo Bozzone this time crossed the finish line first winning the Memorial Hermann Ironman 70.3 Texas in Galveston. Bozzone, 25, stopped just before the finish line and raised his hands in the air. He smiled and soaked in the round of the applause and cheers while flexing his muscles. Then, as if the fans' gusto gave him another burst of energy after a grueling 70.3 miles of running, biking and swimming, Bozzone took another lap around the end of the race. He high-fived fans and gave hugs at a swift jog. "This is what it's all about — the fans, the energy, the accomplishment," Bozzone said. "Oh, it feels really good." 
(26 April 2010)

Lebanon for Baldwin 
Former Tall Blacks coach Tab Baldwin has announced he has taken up the position as coach of Lebanon's national team. Baldwin, 51, will gather his first squad together at the start of June in preparation for the Basketball World Championships and faces his former team in the group stage of the Championships. "It will be an emotional experience to play against New Zealand," Baldwin told The Daily Star. "I am a citizen there and it was my home for over 20 years," he said. "I will have to process the whole scenario in my head in the weeks leading up to the game," said Baldwin. The 2010 World Championships will be his third in a row after leading New Zealand in 2002 and 2006, achieving a semi-finals place against the odds eight years ago, as well as coaching the Tall Blacks in the 2004 Athens Olympics, where Baldwin pulled off another shock result by beating World Champions Serbia and Montenegro. He left his position as New Zealand head coach in 2006 and has since worked around Europe and Turkey. 
(16 April 2010)

Herbert versus Goliath 
All Whites coach Ricki Herbert — who made 61 appearances for New Zealand including as defender for New Zealand's 1982 World Cup squad in Spain — says that he doesn't need to beat his chest and get his name out into the media ahead of the World Cup in South Africa. Most believe Herbert operates under the same circumstances and with the same resources as coaches of other qualified nations. New Zealand is a developed and moderately wealthy country and it has been assumed Herbert will prepare his team for the World Cup in ideal circumstances. But Herbert still faces significant problems of scale. New Zealand is a country of only 4 million people and football remains a minor sport, popular among children but less so among adults, in a country almost consumed by rugby. Herbert juggles his time as national coach with his fulltime role as coach of the Wellington Phoenix, the country's only fulltime professional team. Few of his peers face such a demanding division of roles. However, he remains fully committed to the national cause, regardless of his or his squad's profile in New Zealand. "I've never lost faith in this team ever since I took over four years ago. It's a massive responsibility to get us back onto the world stage and a lot of people have done a lot of hard work to make this happen," he said. 
(3 April 2010)

Shifting the spotlight 
New Zealand's national soccer team, the All Whites, stole the limelight from its better-known rugby compatriots the All Blacks Saturday by securing a spot in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa — a refreshing change for a country whose sports pages are usually dominated by the oval-shaped ball. New Zealand defeated Bahrain 1–0 in the return leg of the Oceania-Asia playoff game, after the first leg had finished in a scoreless draw. According to the Wall Street Journal's Gabriele Marcotti, the All Whites can thank two countries for their spot at the World Cup next year: Australia (who successfully petitioned to join the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), leaving New Zealand as "Oceania's default juggernauts") and USA — four of the players in the squad played college soccer in the United States, including captain Ryan Nelsen, who went to Stanford. 
(15 November 2009)

Jones hits big 
Auckland teenager Sacha Jones has earned her biggest career win securing the US$25,000 ITF Darwin Challenger tournament with a 6–4, 6–1 win over Western Australian Bojana Bobusic. Showing a cool head in the mid-afternoon Darwin heat, Jones was able to hang in the contest and, like a top player does, capitalised fully when her chance arrived at 5–4. Bobusic, who had served quite well, gave Jones one break-point opportunity and that was all the 18-year-old New Zealander needed to claim the set. "It's just a fantastic feeling, this was my first final of a $25,000 event and to win it is so rewarding," Jones said. "I had fond memories of Darwin when I won back-to-back ITF events here in 2005 and I've got a few more now." 
(28 September 2009)

King of the Derby 
New Zealand jockey Larry Cassidy rode New Plymouth trainer John Wheeler's Court Ruler to victory in the $500,000 Queensland Derby at Eagle Farm. Wheeler won his first Derby with his champion Rough Habit in 1990 and said he was always confident Court Ruler could win the classic. "It's always nice to win group 1s but it's especially nice to win another one at Eagle Farm," Wheeler said. "I galloped him between races at Doomben on Wednesday and he worked really well and I thought from then on he would be very hard to beat. He's a tough horse, he ran fourth in the New Zealand Derby and he will get better with age." 
(7 June 2009)

In search of a history
New Zealand film producer and public speaker Anna Wilding is now writing regularly for the TennisGrandStand site, and in her first column, as the US Open approaches, she writes about her great uncle, tennis legend Captain Anthony Wilding and the "hallowed grounds" of Forest Hills, New York. "My 'Uncle Tony' actually played his last match in America at Forest Hills, before being killed in the war in 1915 at the tender age of 32. In that time, he also won bronze at the Olympics," Wilding explains. "In The New York Times in 1915, W. De B. Whyte wrote the following: 'In tennis [Anthony Wilding] was always the soul of honour; as courteous and gallant a player as ever set foot in an American court. He was the last man ever to excuse himself for poor form or indifferent play.'"
(19 August 2008)

Colorado's horse surgeon 
New Zealand-born veterinarian and world authority on equine joints, Dr Wayne McIlwraith is the director of Colorado State University's Equine Orthopaedic Research Center, each year performing as many as 500 surgeries on racing thoroughbreds. In his role at the EORC - the most prominent and largest of the handful of such facilities in the United States - McIlwraith conducts and oversees research in the quest to make horseracing safer. This is done primarily in two ways: firstly, coming up with and refining testing procedures that can detect bone problems in racehorses that can make them prone to breakdowns and secondly, researching racing surfaces, whether dirt or synthetic. "In a perfect world, and I don't think this is unreasonable, I feel that if an owner buys a yearling, he is just as responsible for that horse's well-being as if they had a kid," McIlwraith says. McIlwraith qualified as a veterinarian from Massey University in 1970 and then completed his surgical residency and PhD at Purdue University, in Indiana. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Science from Massey University in 2003, the first veterinary graduate to receive such an honour. 
(14 June 2008)

Snell's still running 
Olympic champion and New Zealand's greatest athlete of the 20th century Peter Snell looks back over the last 70 years and discusses, age, Auckland and Arthur Lydiard. Now based in Dallas and a distinguished sports scientist, Snell has researched a scientific basis for the revolutionary training methods devised half a century ago by Lydiard. "I wasn't from his suburb in Auckland, I ended up being there. And I was attracted by the results he was getting," said Snell. He became the outstanding individual in the Lydiard stable. Today, his aim is to demonstrate personally that daily exercise can delay if not halt the ageing process and relieve the symptoms of osteoarthritis. "I am also motivated by my own sort of mortality." 
(6 March 2008)

Going the distance 
NZ distance runner Kim Smith came second in the Continental Fifth Avenue Mile, held in New York on 30 September. The 24-year-old was a four-time National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) champion while at Providence College in Rhode Island, New York, where she still lives. After health problems kept her from competing in this year's Commonwealth Games, she has high hopes for the 2007 athletics World Champs and 2008 Olympics. 
(2 October 2006)

Marks takes a bow
Tall Blacks star, Sean Marks, has announced his retirement from NZ basketball, after helping the San Antonio Spurs to victory in the NBA final. “I've given it a lot of thought and it was a tough decision to come by,” he says. “I've had a great run with the Tall Blacks and I've cherished every moment with the guys … they have been some of the best moments of my basketball career.” After attending the University of California Berkeley, Marks became the first NZer to be drafted for the NBA. He has played for the New York Knicks, Toronto Raptors and San Antonio Spurs.
(29 June 2005)
  

 
Dunkin' Dream
Kiwi Kirk Penney describes 2000 as "just dream after dream" after playing in the NCAA final four and the Olympics in one year.
(25 September 2000)
           

 
Pete Sampras follows historic Kiwi footsteps at Wimbledon
Kiwi contribution to a tennis legacy: "No man in this century has dominated the world's only important grasscourt tournament quite like Sampras. Not Hugh Doherty. Not the dashing New Zealander Tony Wilding. Not Fred Perry. Not Rod Laver. Boris Becker or even Bjorn Borg." 
(26 June 2000)   
           

With time in hand Tait wins Rolex Three-Day Event
Blyth Tait of New Zealand, had a clear final round and no time faults to win on an untried horse, Welton Envoy.
(30 April 2000) 
           

"Go you good thing, go" - Kiwi Kingz supporters hailed as best in NSL
How good are the Auckland Kingz fans?  Up there with the best, it seems. While the Kingz may have enjoyed a topsy-turvy season, their fans have consistently been hailed as the best in the NSL - and that includes the hardcore of Northern Spirit and Perth Glory supporters.
(27 April 2000)           

Kiwis' towering achievement in Kuala Lumpur
New Zealanders showed their domination at the Kuala Lumpur International Towerathon 2000 in both the men's and women's categories.  Jonathan Wyatt broke his own record to win the event, climbing the 2,058 steps of the tower in 10.39s. Kiwi Melissa Moon won the women's category in 13.24s.
(14 May 2000)
        

I'm gonna be a contender
David Tua has the respect of World Heavyweight boxing champ Lennox Lewis, "I think Tua deserves a shot". A possible title fight is lined up for later this year.
(1 May 2000)
           

Today in History:
Hillary's Everest ascent remembered LA Times remembers Hillary and Tenzing's historic achievement in being the first to reach the top of the world's tallest mountain.  
(29 May 2000) 
     

New rules for teen 
Fifteen-year-old Waikato-born Kurt Heatherly "has the opportunity to be the first AFL player recruited directly from New Zealand", writes Jake Niall for The Age. If Heatherly wears the brown and gold at AFL level, as the Melbourne Hawthorn Hawks hope, he will have a special place in the game's history alongside Melbourne's Irish pioneers, Jim Stynes and Sean Wight. The Hawks found him playing for New Zealand in a junior basketball tournament in Tasmania. He was 14, had never seen or played Australian football and knew nothing about this strange game played across the Tasman. Their interest was based entirely on his physical gifts and prowess at other sports. Heatherly told The Age would be "a great honour", to play for the team adding, "Hopefully I'm not the last one if I do get that far".
(7 May 2010)

Top prospect signed 
Tall Blacks centre Rob Loe, 18, the youngest player on record to represent the Tall Blacks, has signed with Saint Louis University team Billikens. Loe will have four years of eligibility beginning with the 2010–11 academic year. "Any discussion about Rob Loe has to begin with what a high-character young man he is," Billikens' basketball coach Rick Majerus said. "He is all about team and will be an excellent fit with our players." The 2.11m Loe is rated by Scouts Inc. as the top college prospect in New Zealand and is ranked No. 40 among all power forwards. He was the top player for the Junior Tall Blacks at the 2009 FIBA U-19 World Championships in Auckland, New Zealand. 
(14 April 2010)

Ahead of the best 
Taupo-born Olympic triathlete Bevan Docherty, 33, has won the opening race of the ITU Dextro Energy World Champs Series in Sydney. Docherty, a two-time Olympic medallist, pulled away from the chase pack halfway through the run leg to overtake race leaders, France's Tony Moulai and American Matt Chrabot, finishing comfortably in a time of 1:51.27. "This is awesome; it is great to start the season like this, especially in Sydney," Docherty said. "I remember back in 2000 I was watching Simon [Whitfield] crossing the line in the Olympics and I thought how cool would that be to be there one day ... This is just such a buzz, such a great feeling, amongst the best in my career." New Zealand's leading female triathlete and world No 3 Andrea Hewitt claimed second in the women's race. The second race of the world championship series will be held in Seoul on May 8. 
(11 April 2010)

From top to bottom 
Paeroa ultra-marathon runner Andrew Hedgeman, 22, has run the length of New Zealand in 28 days, averaging 80km a day, to become the first ever to complete the distance in under 30 days. He was greeted on arrival at Stirling Point by Invercargill mayor Tim Shadbolt with a plate of oysters. Hedgeman admits he will have the utmost respect for the next person who takes on the challenge. "I'll take my hat off to the person that does this next," Hedgeman said. So what is the best thing about completing running's toughest feat in New Zealand? "Knowing I don't have to get up and run again tomorrow," he said. Along the way Hedgeman stopped at several schools to talk about his efforts and try to inspire children to reach for their goals. He is now looking at writing a book about his feat. 
(22 March 2010)

Toward the moon 
Wellington mountain-running and marathon champion Melissa Moon, 40, won the women's section of New York City's annual Empire State Building Run-Up, passing 300 runners and ascending 1576 steps to the finish line in 13 minutes, 13 seconds. "I've had a taste of stair racing," said Moon. "I've done Taipei 101, which was [then] the world's tallest. I've done the Sydney Sky Tower. Having now run this race, all I can say is wow! It will go to the top of my resume s the most prestigious thing that I've done." Moon, who trained in Wellington's Majestic Centre, is believed to be the first New Zealander to win the 33-year-old race. 
(2 February 2010)

No pain no gain 
Dunedin ironman Olympian Greg Henderson, 32, won stage two of the Jayco Bay Classic Criterium in Geelong. And when Henderson admits to hurting, you know he's had a tough day. "The legs are absolutely screaming at me," a jubilant Henderson said after the win. "The pace was a cracker from the opening lap. The speed of the attacks and counter-attacks was just unbelievable. The field raced at full gas throughout. After two days here, I now know why the Jayco crits produce the quickest closed-circuit racing anywhere in the world." Henderson showed just why the new Rupert Murdoch-backed Team Sky paid big money for his services with a dazzling display of sprinting around a tight and technical Eastern Park circuit on the foreshores of Corio Bay. In 2009 he won the Clasica de Almerma in Spain and the second stage of Vuelta Ciclista a Murcia. 
(4 January 2010)

Working to live 
New Zealander Michelle Clark-Smith, 32, who is now based in Durango, Colorado, is "building a semi-professional ski career for herself in tandem with her partner-in-crime and husband, longtime local photographer Scott DW Smith". In the autumn of 2007, Clark-Smith came to "check out Durango" and never left. First it was a Purgatory season pass, which she worked off as a ski model for the resort. Then came other sponsorships from Wagner Custom Skis, BCA, Leki, Smith Optics, Flylow Gear, Hestra and Osprey Packs. She has also been seen in Colorado Ski Country USA, Durango Magazine, Pagosa Magazine and various catalogues and resort marketing publications. This winter, I-70 commuters will see her on a billboard ad for Chicago Ridge Snowcats. Clark-Smith grew up around New Zealand's Southern Alps. In 1999, she secured a job as a chef at a club field in Castle Hill Basin near the Craigieburn Range where at the age of 20, she taught herself to ski. By 2003, Clark-Smith was turning out notable results on the New Zealand freeskiing competition circuit. 
(10 December 2009)

Vili one of the best 
Rotorua-born shot putter Valerie Vili, 25, has been shortlisted as one of five female finalists vying for the 2009 World Athlete of the Year award. The winners will be announced during the 2009 World Athletics Gala, which will take place in Monaco, on November 22. Vili is the reigning Olympic and Commonwealth champion. She also currently holds the New Zealand, Oceania and Commonwealth records for the shot put with a personal best of 21.07m. 
(10 November 2009)

Back in the ring 
Heavyweight champion David Tua, 36, returned to the ring in "smashing fashion" knocking out fellow countryman Shane Cameron, 31, in the second round after seven seconds obliterating his opponent with combinations, crushing him with a right hand and a fight-ending left hook knocking the bloody Cameron down near the ropes. ESPN's Dan Rafael continues with the roundup of the Hamilton fight: "Tua, who amazingly only fought for a world title once when he was dominated by then-champion Lennox Lewis in a lopsided decision loss in 2001 — has had multiple long layoffs in recent years for various reasons, including a severe falling out with his previous management and an ensuing court case. Maybe the time off will put him back into a fighting frame of mind, which would be great for the division. With Tua you know what you're going to get. He's a one-dimensional pressure fighter, but when he lands his left hand, he can knock any man on Earth out cold. That's what we like to see in heavyweights. Hopefully, it won't be another two years until Tua is back in the ring." 
(5 October 2009)

Lomu gets ripped 
Former All Black great Jonah Lomu, 34, stepped back into the limelight coming second in the Men's Open over-90kg class at the NZFBB Body Building Championships in Wellington, an exercise in weight-loss before making a comeback in France playing with second-division Marseille in November. Lomu played 63 tests for the All Blacks between 1994 and 2002 and was the headline performer at the 1995 and 1999 World Cups, but his brilliant career was cut short by kidney disease. His weight ballooned to 142kg but after getting back to the gym he tipped the scales at 114kg when he made his bodybuilding debut coated in tanning oil. "You do look in the mirror at your body and it's amazing how critical you become," he said. "I'm seeing myself in a different shape. It's been hard work but anybody can be a bodybuilder, it's all about discipline." 
(15 September 2009)

Afghan Warrior signs up
Seventeen-year-old Afghan refugee Omar Slaimankhel has signed a two-year contract with the Vodafone Warriors and "after surviving the kind of dangers his family has endured, playing rugby league must seem like a stroll in the park," writes Steve Kilgallon for The Sydney Morning Herald. Omar's family found refuge in New Zealand when he was three. That period of torment has opened up a life of opportunity for Omar, who hails from a family that is now something of an unlikely sporting dynasty. Omar's uncle was a 100m sprint champion in Pakistan. His cousin, Khalid, is a champion bodybuilder and powerlifter preparing for the Australasian championships next month. His older brother, Sabir, has also been a competitive weightlifter and played premier rugby in Otago. Omar has four brothers, while Khalid is one of six and almost all of them have played in first XVs. The NRL believes he's the first Afghan to become a professional league player. He says with a laugh: "I reckon I'd be the first Afghan professional sportsman." 
(16 August 2009)

Point of pride 
The All Whites have secured their first ever point at a FIFA tournament in the South African Confederations Cup. Though goalless for all three matches played, the New Zealand team — dressed in black for their final game — held on for a 0–0 draw against Iraq. "I think tonight's another milestone for the country," coach Ricki Herbert said. "The team, I thought, were magnificent. We've never come to a tournament and gained a point and we've never come to a tournament and dominated a game." Goalkeeper Glen Moss, who saved one shot with his head late in the match, was also happy with the point. "It's a pretty proud moment, to be honest," Moss said. "We really wanted to play with a bit of pride tonight and show everyone that we can play in this competition and we should be here." New Zealand qualified for the tournament as champions of Oceania, a region it is expected to dominate since the defection of Australia to the Asian confederation. 
(20 June 2009)

First in Columbia 
Professional triathlete Aucklander Terenzo Bozzone, 24, has won the 26th annual Columbia Triathlon. In a stirring fight to the finish, Bozzone overtook Andrew Yoder of Columbia, Pennsylvania near the halfway point of the 10km race around Centennial Lake to win the rainy day race. "Andy Yoder passed me on the bike ride like I was standing," Bozzone said. "I found my legs midway through the run and was able to pass him." Bozzone finished second in this year's New Zealand Ironman. In 2008 Bozzone won the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Clearwater, Florida setting a new course record of 3:40:10. 
(17 May 2009)

Football ambassador 
Christchurch professional footballer Ryan Nelsen, 31, is a pivotal member of English Premier League side Blackburn Rovers, one of a number of teams fighting against relegation this season. Nelsen has been a regular feature of the side since he was drafted in a free trade from DC United in 2005 and has been captain since 2007. He is renowned on field for his tenacity and commitment, and is the only New Zealander in arguably the most popular league in world football. 
(06 April 2009)

Big easy baller 
Auckland local Sean Marks is enjoying regular playing time on the New Orleans Hornets, one of America's top basketball teams. Recently interviewed by InsiderHoops.com, Marks describes how he grew up in a markedly different sporting world. "It's a rugby nation and I think everybody grows up with a rugby ball in their hand at some stage," says Sean. As the first New Zealander to play in the NBA, Marks took the time to drum up New Zealand basketball, speaking highly of some of the country's basketball stars, including Stan Hill, Kirk Penny, Mark Dickel, Phil Jones, and Pero Cameron. He is currently averaging 3.1 points and 3.2 rebounds a game, helping the Hornets hold on to the fourth seed in the Western Conference.
(2 March 2009)

Musher says hike 
Christchurch dog sledder Curt Perano made the list of top mushers for the John Beargrease 150-mile mid-distance sled dog race from Minnesota towns Duluth to Tofte. Perano and his wife, Fleur, began dog sledding with a pair of Alaskan Malamutes in Christchurch eight years ago before taking up coaching with American dog-sledding master Jamie Nelson — a four-time Beargrease marathon winner. With only a few four- to 12-mile races in New Zealand on his resume, Curt's first distance race, the White Oak Sled Dog Classic two weeks ago in Deer River, went better than anticipated. With 10 Alaskan Huskies, he finished seventh out of 19 teams after covering 130 miles. "That was more than I had done in any training event," Perano said. "A lot of the dogs are young, and, with my experience, where I finished was a bonus." 
(24 January 2009)

Tall Fern makes UConn 
Auckland basketball player Jessica McCormack, 19, who was the youngest member of the New Zealand team at the Beijing Olympics this year, now plays for the top-ranked University of Connecticut (UConn) as a "versatile" 6-foot-5 centre, having left the University of Washington Huskies in February. McCormack said she informed the UConn coaching staff of her decision to join the program in April. "I think what we saw was a big, athletic kid who had basketball skills,'" UConn associate head coach Chris Dailey said. "And more international basketball skills than sometimes what you see, and we like all those things. And she's big. I think she's going to get stronger. And I'm looking forward to having the chance to work with her." McCormack made her Tall Ferns debut at the age of 15 in 2005, helping the team to a silver medal at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games. 
(17 December 2008)

Trumps in Mexico 
Whangarei triathlete Sam Warriner, 37, took gold at the Huatulco BG World Cup in Mexico and with the win becomes the 2008 BG Triathlon World Cup series champion. Warriner was victorious in a time of 2 hours 14 minutes and 2 seconds. "This is what I wanted," said Warriner, who came within five points of second overall last year. "This is a fairytale ending to the year. I've worked so hard for this." In the men's event, Palmerston North-based Kris Gemmell made it a New Zealand sweep of the gold medals in a time of 2 hours 3 minutes and 23 seconds, giving the 31-year-old his fourth career world cup victory. Warriner previously collected her sixth ITU BG World Cup title with victory in Tongyeong, South Korea in April. 
(27 October 2008)

Triumph for the Ferns 
The Silver Ferns have won the deciding netball test against England 61-22 in the best of three series final in Palmerston North. Both teams came out firing on Saturday night but it was the Silver Ferns who hit a five-goal streak early on to take the lead. Irene van Dyk, playing her 90th test for New Zealand, showed her class with the elusive 100 per cent game for 41 goals. Ferns coach Ruth Aitken praised her team's success: "It's been a very up and down week ... Obviously, they have done really well and I am very proud of them - I think we were really committed." The team next takes on Australia in the Holden Test Series in Melbourne on October 26, then again in Brisbane on November 2. 
(18 October 2008)

On board solo 
Rob Thomson, 28, a Canterbury University arts graduate from Christchurch, has completed the longest unassisted skateboard journey ever made, travelling for 462 days over 12,000km from Leysin, Switzerland across Europe, North America and China to Shanghai. Thomson said other long distance skateboarding feats had involved support teams and he had wanted to do his unaided, carrying his own gear and being self-sufficient. "I took a couple of years of my life to put myself outside of my comfort zone," he told New Zealand's National Radio. After a rest in Shanghai, Thompson will return to New Zealand and bike from Auckland home to Christchurch. He hopes to have the odyssey recognised by Guinness World Records. 
(3 October 2008)

Dixon's Big Apple re-run 
On 23 October 1983, Nelson-born middle distance runner Rod Dixon raced past UK-emigrant Geoff Smith and won the New York City Marathon raising his hands to the sky in victory. The winning snapshot is not unlike that of Muhammad Ali's celebrated moment of victory against Sonny Liston at Lewiston in 1965; in New York in 1983 it came after more than two hours of pounding the streets of the city's five boroughs at close to world-record pace. "I've got a copy of the picture here," Dixon, 58, said from his office in Los Angeles with the 25th anniversary fast approaching of the New Zealander's epic tussle with Smith, the one-time Liverpool fireman, who lies prone in exhaustion to the rear of Dixon in the famous image. As it is, a quarter of a century on, Dixon is getting ready to return to New York as a hero. On 2 November he will run in the ING New York Marathon alongside one of his daughters, Emma, 29. "It will be an amazing experience for me to run the marathon with Emma," he said. "I still love to run. I don't have to win or be the fastest. I just like to go out and connect with the emotional, physical and spiritual part of running." Since 2006, Dixon has helped coach the LA Roadrunners — a Los Angeles Marathon training club open to the public. 
(12 October 2008)

Taking on the Chutes
The fourth annual Volkl NZ Freeski Open held at Treble Cone in late August, marking the season opener of the international ski calendar, saw Dunedin's Alastair Eason and Wanaka's Janina Kuzma take the top spots in the The Big Mountain competition at Mototapu Chutes. Eason's gutsy line choice conjured a roar of applause from the crowd as he put down the run of the day, with perfect landings off 15 meter-high cliffs and fluid, smooth skiing. "I'm really happy to have finally nailed it," said Eason. "I've placed second once, and third twice over the past few years so I'm stoked!" Kuzma topped the field in the women's category with a score of 80 out of 100. Her spectacular cliff drops were backed up by faultless skiing and smooth, clean lines. "So super happy to win again," Kuzma said. "In the morning the snow was super firm, but the sun was shining and the weather was fantastic." 
(4 September 2008)

From within the soul
Lower Hutt runner Nick Willis surged forward in the final moments of the men's 1500m for third place, in a race Willis' University of Michigan coach Ron Warhurst said the 25-year-old "always had the talent to do." "Wow. What a night for New Zealand. What a night for Michigan," said Warhurst. Willis said all the training was worth it. "There's 91,000 people screaming for you. You just get it. It comes back from al the training you've done, the speed work on the track, the 22-mile runs. That's where you get it from." Willis said his mind and soul were split between two continents as he took a long victory lap around the Bird's Nest. John Walker, who won gold in the 1500m at Montreal in 1976, told NZPA it was an "outstanding performance" in a competition where two of the top ranked runners in the world had failed to even make the semis. In cycling news at the Beijing Olympics, New Zealand's men's pursuit team also won bronze. 
(20 August 2008)

Gold in the Bird's Nest 
Auckland athlete Valerie Vili, 23, has won a gold medal in shot put at the Beijing Olympics, the first for New Zealand in track and field since John Walker's gold in the 1500m at Montreal in 1976. The reigning world outdoor and indoor champion clinched victory with a best throw of 20.56m. Vili produced the three best throws of the competition, following up her opening statement-maker with 20.40m, 20.26, 20.01 and 20.52 in as sustained a spell of athletic brilliance as you'll ever see. "I wanted to put the pressure on from the start and I could do that with the first round throw," said Vili. "I was really happy to get a personal best. It was an amazing feeling. It was a very long, exciting and nerve-racking competition because you can never put your guard down with the Belarussians up against you." 
(16 August 2008)

Macchiato marathon 
The 182-strong New Zealand Olympic team will have flat whites and long blacks on tap in Beijing thanks to award-winning barista Julianne Frith, 21, from Auckland, who was selected by a panel of former Olympians and Beijing chef de mission Dave Currie. Currie said it was difficult to get a good cup of coffee at the 2004 Athens' Games. "So one of the sponsors ran a competition and this young woman had to have a test and face a selection panel and she came up trumps," he said. Frith is expected to make up to 500 cups of coffee a day, though Currie said he did not expect any problems with caffeine being on the World Anti-Doping Agency's monitoring list after previously being a banned substance. 
(23 July 2008)

Joltin' with the Jays 
Aucklander Scott Campbell, 23, shook hands with Joe DiMaggio in 1995 as a New Zealand representative at the World Children's Baseball Fair in Japan and this week, 13 years later, Campbell played Dimaggio's Yankee Stadium, as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays in the Futures Game. An annual component of All-Star Week, the event showcases top minor-league prospects in a game that pits a United States club against a team of players from other nations. Campbell, now a second baseman, was nine when his mother saw a newspaper ad for a children's baseball program. "No other sport really jumped out at me, so I just decided to give it a go," he said. He was a natural. In 2006, Toronto made him the first New Zealander ever drafted.
(13 July 2008)

Wood choppin' win 
Auckland lumberjack Dion Lane, 31, has sawn and chopped his way to overall victory at the Midwestern Lumberjack Championships held in Rochester, United States, beating fellow New Zealander and brother-in-law Jason Wynyard. Lane competed in the event for the ninth year in a row and after seconds, thirds, fourths and fifths, he finally won the men's overall championship. "It's about time," the 350-pound giant said. Lane has been competing in timber sports for 14 years. New Zealander Sheree Taylor, a three-time Midwestern winner, was runner-up on the women's leader board. 
(23 June 2008)

Big Red mystery solved 
Renowned New Zealand-bred gelding Phar Lap, who won 37 of his 51 starts and the 1930 Melbourne Cup was killed by arsenic poisoning in 1932, scientists have confirmed after decades of speculation. A handwritten notebook of homeopathic recipes used by his trainer Harry Telford, auctioned in Melbourne in April, revealed arsenic and strychnine among the ingredients in the tonics and ointments he used on his horses. Forensic results released at Melbourne Museum showed Phar Lap had ingested a large dose of arsenic in the last 30 to 40 hours of his life in California. His skeleton is displayed at Te Papa, his mounted hide at the Melbourne Museum, and his heart at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. 
(19 June 2008)

Double victory 
New Zealanders Bevan Docherty and Samantha Warriner each made podium finishes in the triathlon world championships in Vancouver, Docherty taking second place in the men's elite and Warriner third in the women's. New Zealand-born Matt Reed, who now represents the US, was fifth. Docherty enjoyed his victory with a burger and fries. "With the sacrifices we make, we've got to treat ourselves once in a while," he said. The triathletes had to contend with unseasonably cool and damp weather; the water for the swim was about 11°C. Warriner couldn't believe her placing. "This is such a big boost to me to claim a medal in these circumstances ... I'm stoked," she said. 
(9 June 2008)

Age no barrier
16-year-old New Zealander Chris Pither came second in the Formula Ford Track Attack at Albert Park, Melbourne. Pither has been racing since the age of seven, and already has three national karts titles to his credit.
(9 March 2003)
   

Kiwi driver up to speed
"When Scott Dixon first came to Chicago Motor Speedway two years ago, he was an 18-year-old competing in the developmental Indy Lights series. At Sunday's Target Grand Prix, he was outdriving the veterans on the CART circuit."
(30 July 2001)
               

The greatest rider of the century
As Mark Todd prepares to leap the final fences of his distinguished career, The Time's Simon Barnes heaps lavish praise on the New Zealander who is "without peer" in the equestrain world.
(9 May 2000)
 

Getting Jiggy: Bolstad axes the competition at ESPN Outdoor Games
Dave Bolstad "considered to be one of the world's best" of Taumarunui won the most medals at the inaugural ESPN Outdoor Games held in the last week of July. The timber expert and world champion axeman left Lake Placid with two golds (hardest hit and team relay) and two silvers (men's endurance and two-board jigger).
(31 July 2000)
          

Heated win 
Whangarei-based Olympian Sam Warriner has won the Ironman 70.3 in New Orleans, "thanks to [an] impressive half-marathon performance in the heat". Despite coming off of the bike in fifth position, Warriner handled the early afternoon heat the best of all the women, running into first. She claimed with a half-marathon time of 1:21:35 and an overall time of 4:16:44. It was her first win since suffering a broken wrist in the Takapuna sprint triathlon in February. "I've got some really exciting races coming up against some exciting competition," Warriner said. "There are also a lot of races out there that excite me; St Croix, Wildflower, Rev 3 to name just a few — I'm loving being based in the States and being so central to all these iconic events." In the men's race, compatriot Terenzo Bozzone came in second at 3:47:17. 
(18 April 2010)

Final season strength 
Warriors prop Steve Price, 36, has announced he will retire at the end of the season. His battle-weary legs may have forced his hand, but it is a simple message inscribed on his wrist which will act as the inspiration for Price's 17th and final season in the NRL. While he remains at a loss as to just when he will return to the field, Australian-born Price said the mantra 'Finish Strong' which adorns a wristband he wears every day would help motivate him during his final campaign. "It's something that you think about a lot, but if it's there present on your wrist you'll do it," Price said. Price moved to the Warriors in 2005, where he was immediately appointed captain. 
(6 April 2010)

Phoenix survive playoff 
With Phoenix goal keeper Liam Reddy fending off an attack by Perth in a penalty shootout in front of a record crowd of 25,000 at the Cake Tin, the Wellington team prevailed 4-2 to advance to the second round of Australia's A-League football playoffs. Reddy saved spot kicks from Naum Sekulovski and Scott Bulloch in the shootout. Paul Ifill, Andrew Durante, Tim Brown and Adrian Caceres were cool under pressure, slotting home their kicks against the Glory's impressive keeper Tando Velaphi. The Sydney Morning Herald's Michael Cockerill analyses the team: "We will survive. It should be the anthem of Wellington Phoenix, the success story of the season. It used to be said the Phoenix needed the A-League more than the A-League needed the Phoenix. No longer. In just three weeks, Wellington have made themselves indispensable." The Phoenix next face the Newcastle Jets in Wellington on March 7. 
(21 February 2010)

Christie gets loud 
Whangarei-raised New Zealand international midfielder Jeremy Christie, 27, has signed a two-year deal with Florida team the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the second tier North American Soccer League. Christie has won 20 caps for New Zealand, and played in five of the country's qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup. "Jeremy Christie has the experience and skill to be a true leader on the field and in our locker room. He has played well at the highest level for his country since the age of 16," Rowdies team owner and president Andrew Nestor said. "Jeremy is the kind of player whose skill and professionalism will exemplify our club." "I'm excited to be a part of the Rowdies in their inaugural season," Christie said. "I look forward to moving to Florida and working with the remarkable Rowdies coaching staff and organization." Christie debuted for the All Whites against Australia in 2005. 
(22 January 2010)

Common southern goal 
Twizel pilot Kylie Wakelin, 36, is one of eight women skiing to the South Pole in a trek to mark the anniversary of the Commonwealth grouping of 53 former British colonies. Skiing six to 10 hours a day, they expect to travel 800km across the frozen southern continent to the pole in about 40 days. Each is towing a sledge with food and gear weighing some 80kg. The Commonwealth Women's Antarctic Expedition will face blinding blizzards, winds in excess of 130km/h, hidden crevasses and temperatures that plummet to minus 40°C. In recent years, Wakelin has taken part in ski-touring and mountaineering expeditions to Norway, Greenland, Alaska, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. She has also previously worked in Antarctica for the British Antarctic Survey. Wakelin says an all women's expedition has always been a goal. "I hope to inspire women in the 30's-plus age bracket that 'anything is possible with a dream, a plan and a lot of determination,' Wakelin says. 
(23 November 2009)

Hopes on Bahrain 
If New Zealand's All Whites beat Bahrain on October 10 they will compete in their first World Cup since 1982 in Spain. Dunedin-born defender Andrew Boyens, 26, who currently plays for the New York Red Bulls, is interviewed by the New York Times' Jack Bell ahead of the match. "I guess it's the same thing it means to all footballers," said Boyens, who has made 12 appearances for his national team. "That's the pinnacle. That's what you dream of when you're a kid growing up, waiting to be a footballer. We're a couple of games away from it. You don't want to get too excited." "It's hard," Boyens said. "We're always going to be in the shadow of rugby and cricket. But I think if we were to go to a World Cup, the same way as the smaller countries really get behind their teams in the World Cup kind of environment, I think New Zealand is going to come out and do that for us as well." 
(2 October 2009)

Reed takes crown 
Palmerston North-born triathlete Matt Reed, 34, now based in Boulder, Colorado, has won the Toyota US Open triathlon and the Toyota Cup series crown having taken first place in the Dallas Triathlon on October 11. Reed raced in classic form by swimming just off the heels of the leaders, dispensing with all but one hard charging cyclist and then finally, established an early lead on the run and never looked back. Reed's dominating performance in Dallas along with a 3rd place in New York and wins in Minneapolis and Chicago won him the Toyota Cup series, earning him a total of US$40,000 in prize money. 
(12 October 2009)

Accuracy under fire 
The Silver Ferns have won the inaugural six-nation Fastnet World Series against Jamaica in Manchester 32–27. The world number-two seed beat off stiff competition from an ever-improving Jamaican side to take the trophy at the MEN Arena. Coach Ruth Aitken lauded her team's ability to adapt to the new rules after her team lost round-robin matches to England and Australia to qualify third for the semifinals. "We were certainly slow starters in the tournament but probably in the end it's not how you start but how you finish that makes the difference," Aitken said. "A big difference was our confidence in each other and therefore a bit more accuracy in our passing," she said. "Earlier in the week we were turning over a bit too much ball, but yoday there was some real quality netball." The Silver Ferns went on to beat England in a one-off test 65–59 in extra time at Bath University. 
(12 October 2009)

Winning pair 
New Zealand showjumper Samantha McIntosh, 34, has won the closing class of the day at Britain's Horse of the Year show in Birmingham. McIntosh, who lives near Cologne, Germany, took the Zinc Management Trophy and £5000 with Loxley 38 riding in her first indoor show of the year and in a return to riding for New Zealand. McIntosh has been based in Germany for 14 years and rode for Bulgaria for nine of those before taking advantage of a rule which gave riders one last chance to revert. She runs her own business from the Hirtenhof stable of Patricia Luthi and Gunther Orshel in Aach, southern Germany. 
(9 October 2009)

Bright football star 
New Zealand striker Kris Bright, 22, has signed a two-year contract with England's League Two Shrewsbury, and according to the BBC's sports blogger Paul Fletcher, "in an era when many footballers are regarded as pampered and luxuriated individuals, nobody could accuse Bright of an easy ride." He has played in Holland, Norway and Greece, had trials at Kilmarnock and Norwich and spent several months as a 16-year-old at Gillingham. Bright has finally fulfilled his long-held ambition to play in England. As Bright told Fletcher: "If there was a Champions League team on the moon that wanted to sign me, I would go there." Bright's impressive goals-to-games ratio invited comparisons to Manchester United legend Ole Gunnar Solskjaer that the modest young New Zealander was keen to avoid. "People were saying stupid things, comparing us," said a clearly embarrassed Bright. "The boys at the club gave me a bit of stick about it so I wanted it toned down a little bit. My aim is to play in the Premier League and it is all about stepping stones. I am feeling good and waiting for my chance." Kris Bright is the son of 1982 World Cup defender Dave Bright. 
(2 September 2009)

Tall Blacks thump Boomers 
New Zealand have beaten Australia 100–78 securing the top spot in the Oceania rankings and a place at the 2010 World Basketball Championships. New Zealand's 22-point margin — its largest-ever win over Australia — outweighed an earlier seven-point loss in Sydney and marked a coming of age for the unheralded young team. "These guys deserve this win," Tall Blacks coach Nenad Vucinic said. "No-one gave us any credit, no-one respected us. They thought because some of our top players were gone we were no good but we had better wins than this in Europe this year." 
(25 August 2009)

Vili victorious 
World champion shot putter Aucklander Valerie Vili, 25, took the women's title at the 12th World Athletic Championships in Berlin with a final throw of 20.44m. "I'm satisfied I could defend my title. Tonight the German [Nadine Kleinert] pushed me a lot but I wasn't worried, we spent proper time preparing to get the right things done," Vili said. The victory caps another remarkable year for Vili, who in May broke her New Zealand record with a heave of 20.69m in Brazil. Vili joins German Astrid Kumbernuss and China's Zhihong Huang as the only multiple world shot put champions. 
(17 August 2009)

Walker looks to London 
Kawerau BMX rider Sarah Walker, 21, took first place at the World BMX championships in the cruiser class (large wheel diameter) and the elite women's title indoors at the Adelaide Showgrounds. Walker, a bronze medallist at last year's world championship at Taiyuan in China, claimed gold in 31.879sec to beat French rider Eva Ailloud (32.991) in the final. It was Walker's second world title in the cruiser class (larger wheel diameter) after her victory in Canada two years ago, which was secured 24 hours after she won the world elite final with similar ease. Walker was on top of the world and already eyeing the 2012 podium in London after last year's disappointment of a fourth placing in Beijing. "This hasn't sunk in yet. This morning I really didn't have the time to think that I had become a world champion because I had to prepare for today," Walker said. "This is a huge confidence boost for me." 
(26 July 2009)

Phenomenal in Peoria 
Auckland athlete Kim Smith, 27, who is based in the United States, has won the 36th annual Steamboat Classic 4-mile women's race in Peoria, Illinois, running the third fastest four-mile in history. Covering the rugged course in 19 minutes, 38 seconds, the PJ Star described Smith as a "New Zealand phenom" and that "in one of the classiest races around, Kim Smith was in a class by herself." Smith, who finished ninth in the 10,000 metres at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, led throughout in a field that also included Olympic marathon gold medalist Constantina Dita of Romania. "I just wanted to go pretty quick from the start and have a solid race, so I went out and ran hard and came away with the result I was hoping for," said Smith, who shaved 22 seconds off her winning time from a year ago. Smith credited recent altitude training in Boulder, Colorado, with helping improve her speed. 
(20 June 2009)

Snowed in 
Some of New Zealand's top ski spots are reviewed by worldwide online ski site On the Snow, including "the quirky ski field that is home to Burton's The Stash, a natural terrain run with eco obstacles." "Cardrona is 320ha and is one of the very few resorts in New Zealand where you can stay on mountain … Mt Hutt is served by the small town of Methven. This is the best ski and snowboard mountain in New Zealand on a good day. It gets more snow than the resorts down near Queenstown, has 360ha of skiable terrain and another 150 of inbound backcountry and a fantastic transition between the levels. The North Island boasts the country's largest ski areas, of Whakapapa and Turoa, together that's about 1050ha of skiable terrain." 
(27 April 2009)

Mercury's avatar 
"Lorraine Moller, now 53 and living in Boulder, Colarado, won the first marathon she ran — a race she hadn't even intended to finish — and the next eight as well," writes Barbara Matson for The Boston Globe. "The brilliant runner from New Zealand was both pioneer and champion, winning three world championships (1980, '82, and '84) and three Osaka Marathons (1986, '87, and '90). The only runner to race in each of the first four women's Olympic marathons, Moller claimed the bronze medal at the Barcelona Games in 1992 at the age of 37. She won the Boston Marathon in 1984, and she's back to celebrate the 25th anniversary of that victory. Her recent memoir, On the Wings of Mercury, the Lorraine Moller Story (not yet released in the United States but a top seller in New Zealand), is a vivid, unrestrained telling of her remarkable life, particularly the mental workouts that were as constant and as demanding as the mileage." Moller was born in Putaruru. She ran her first marathon in 1979, winning the Grandma's Marathon at Duluth, Minnesota in 2:37:37. The time was the fastest ever by a New Zealander and the sixth-fastest ever run by a woman. 
(16 April 2009)

Potential pro 
Christchurch student James Meredith, 19, is a freshman at Boise State University and since joining the university's tennis team in January, Meredith has been called "unbelievable" and "one of the best talents" the squad has had. Coach Greg Patton called Meredith's future "blazing" and said a professional coach watched Meredith hit and compared him to pro Andy Murray. Meredith, who plays No. 3 singles behind seniors Clancy Shields and Kean Feeder and No. 1 doubles with Feeder, is 14-5 in singles and 13-7 in doubles. Meredith is ranked 71st nationally in singles and 50th with Feeder in doubles. "I drive him crazy and he drives me crazy," Patton said. "It's a match made in heaven. James just has this flow about him — there is no turbulence on his flight." Meredith was Canterbury's 2008 Player of the Year. 
(4 April 2009)

A new deal 
Phillip Alder of the New York Times describes "a tied world record," charting out an exceedingly rare occurrence at last year's national bridge congress in Hamilton, 60 miles south of Auckland. "New Zealand is one of the world's most beautiful countries, with climates from tropical in the north to Antarctic in the south. And the friendly residents are a major part of the appeal," writes Alder, in his bridge column. He then describes what turns out to be an intricate description of a singular bridge aberration, speaking of ruffed spades, dummy jacks, overruffed aces and one-no-trump rebids. The side-suit deuce takes the final trick in a trump contract - a surprise ending. "What won Trick 13? Dummy's spade deuce. When did you last see that happen?"
(27 February 2009)

Medals from the velodrome
Christchurch omnium champion Hayden Godfrey, 30, has won gold at the Beijing UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classic series. Godfrey beat Great Britain's Chris Newton in the men's 60-lap, 15km scratch race final. New Zealand won silver in the men's team pursuit, while Jesse Sergent collected gold in the men's individual pursuit as did Alison Shanks in the women's 3km individual pursuit. The Beijing World Cup is the fourth round of the 2008-2009 UCI Track Cycling World Cup series and features around 400 cyclists from 40 nations in 17 events over three days of racing. 
(18 January 2009)

An honourable year 
New Zealand's 2008 Beijing contingent was well represented in the New Year's Honours list and included Christchurch Paralympics swimmer Sophie Pascoe, 16, board sailor Tom Ashley and shot putter Valerie Vili. In total, seven Olympic athletes received awards. Pascoe won three gold medals and a silver in China and learned of this most recent honour through the mail. "It was really unexpected," Pascoe said. "I opened up this mail from the Government. It's not the sort of thing you open up every day, so I was a bit shocked. Then I read it and I was really overwhelmed and honoured to be nominated." In other fields, cinematographer Michael Seresin whose credits include Midnight Express, Angela's Ashes and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and who established the Seresin Estate winery in Marlborough was made an ONZM for services to film and the wine industries. London-based chef Peter Gordon was made an ONZM and Treaty of Waitangi negotiator Dr Ngatata Love became the eighth person to be made a Principal Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. 
(31 December 2008)

Cambodian stint rewards
World aerobics champion Botany Downs local Angela McMillan, 28, has been in Phnom Penh coaching the Cambodian men’s team ahead of December’s Asian Aerobic Gymnastics Championships in Bangkok. McMillan, who claimed the world title in 2004 and currently holds the No 3 ranking, spent nine days in the capital with her sister, fellow aerobics competitor and trainer Dianne McMillan. “When I first came I couldn’t believe these guys had only been training for a year,” McMillan said. “They already look like international athletes.” McMillan has held the national champion title since she entered the sport via her high school team 15 years ago; she now coaches new athletes both at home and abroad. 
(20 November 2008)

Out on a win 
Champion Taranaki jockey Greg Childs, 46, is retiring from a 30-year career which began in New Zealand in the 1970s as an apprentice and ended with a win in the Bounty Hawk Handicap on Game Serena at Flemington. Trainer Mike Moroney first met Childs in New Zealand when Moroney was a travelling foreman for trainer Dave O'Sullivan. He was immediately impressed. "He was very ambitious and competitive and he had this self-belief," Moroney said. "Throughout his career, he's been a real competitor and a perfectionist. He is probably one of the most professional riders going around and he's loyal also. All young riders should look up to him." Childs, who rode 787 winners in New Zealand before crossing the ditch and winning more than 1200 races in Australia and 150 overseas, scored 72 group 1 successes throughout his decorated career. "You can't go on forever and I reckon 30 years is a pretty good run," Childs said. 
(19 December 2008)

Dixon's Big Apple re-run 
On 23 October 1983, Nelson-born middle distance runner Rod Dixon raced past UK-emigrant Geoff Smith and won the New York City Marathon raising his hands to the sky in victory. The winning snapshot is not unlike that of Muhammad Ali's celebrated moment of victory against Sonny Liston at Lewiston in 1965; in New York in 1983 it came after more than two hours of pounding the streets of the city's five boroughs at close to world-record pace. "I've got a copy of the picture here," Dixon, 58, said from his office in Los Angeles with the 25th anniversary fast approaching of the New Zealander's epic tussle with Smith, the one-time Liverpool fireman, who lies prone in exhaustion to the rear of Dixon in the famous image. As it is, a quarter of a century on, Dixon is getting ready to return to New York as a hero. On 2 November he will run in the ING New York Marathon alongside one of his daughters, Emma, 29. "It will be an amazing experience for me to run the marathon with Emma," he said. "I still love to run. I don't have to win or be the fastest. I just like to go out and connect with the emotional, physical and spiritual part of running." Since 2006, Dixon has helped coach the LA Roadrunners — a Los Angeles Marathon training club open to the public. 
(12 October 2008)

Flight from the top 
New Zealand world and Guinness record skydiver Wendy Smith was one three daredevils to leap from an aircraft at a record height of 9000m in the skies above Mount Everest, free-falling for one minute at speeds reaching 290kmph. Smith, a freelance cameraman, is part of an international group of 32 amateur and professional skydivers who paid $NZ35,000 each for the challenge, most jumping from the less formidable height of 5500m. The jumpers, taking part in the week-long Everest Skydive 2008 event, hurtled past the highest ridges of the snow-laden Himalayas, before each released a parachute, made three times the size of a normal canopy to cope with the thin air. They wore oxygen masks to prevent their lungs from collapsing as they fell. Wearing neoprene underwear was compulsory — to prevent them from being frozen to death. "I had never seen so many mountains before," she said. "To be on top of the world was simply stunning." Another New Zealander, Molly Bedingfield, mother of singers Daniel and Natasha, also took part. 
(6 October 2008)

Willis' photo finish
Olympic bronze medallist Lower Hutt athlete Nick Willis, 25, has won New York's Fifth Avenue Mile, a race which John Walker won in 1984. Michigan-based Willis finished in 3 minutes, 50.5 seconds to edge American Olympian Bernard Lagat by 0.1 seconds. "From my experiences at the Olympics and a couple of other races in Europe, I've learnt that, even in that much pain, I can hold my form in a certain way that can get me an extra inch or two that is needed to win the race," he said. "I just eked it out, dipped over the line, and no-one knew who had won. They thought it might have been a dead heat, but then they looked at photo finish and I'd won by 0.1sec."
(21 September 2008)

Four years pays off
Athens silver medallist triathlete Bevan Docherty, 31, took third place and a bronze medal in the men's triathlon at the Beijing Olympics and is determined to try for the gold in four years time. Docherty came in seven seconds after Canadian Simon Whitfield. "Right now I'm ecstatic to get two medals," Docherty said, "but I'm sure as time goes by it's going to eat away at me that [elusive] gold medal. I guess the positive side of it is it's going to keep me in the sport for another four years. I love this sport, it's a great bunch of people and so I'll be back." New Zealand-born Matt Reed, who raced for the United States, finished 32nd, two places ahead of his brother Shane, who was competing for New Zealand. 
(19 August 2008)

Cooking by numbers
Wellingtonian Matt Moss, 36, left New Zealand 16 years ago to play rugby in Britain, Germany and the United States winding up in Beijing working for catering company, Aramark as operations manager at the Olympic village. Moss oversees the cooking for 10,000 athletes, who consume tonnes of vegetables, seafood, dessert, and some 300 Peking ducks daily. "Asian food is always popular," said Moss, who is now based in Baltimore. "Our local partners help educate us on special flavours needed for making authentic Chinese food." Moss's job is a big responsibility, and not surprisingly, food safety is Aramark's top priority. Once it reaches the village it enters temperature-controlled zones and is prepared by an army of chefs whose every move is monitored by video. "At this point you probably could not eat safer anywhere in the world," says Moss. 
(11 August 2008)

Into the crystal ball
Mark Todd, voted Rider of the Century 20th by the International Equestrian Centre, is hoping to compete next at the World Championships in Kentucky in 2010 and is not ruling out the London 2012 Olympics. Though his mare, Gandalf did not quite prove to be the equine goldmine New Zealand had hoped for at the Beijing Games, Todd has no regrets about seizing his chance for a dream comeback. "The opportunity presented itself and I didn't want to say to myself in 10 years' time I wish I had done that. It all just fell into place for me," Todd said. The fire is back in his belly, back from retirement after eight years and buzzing once more with the adrenaline of competition. After the cross-country stage he said: "I didn't feel old, I didn't feel stiff. I felt just as I did in the past. It was really good." As for London, "It is certainly a possibility," he said. "I shall have to sit down and discuss it with my wife."
(12 August 2008)

One of five doubles
Opunake-born middle-distance runner Peter Snell, who achieved the 800m and 1500m Olympic double, is included alongside other double victors, Dame Kelly Holmes and Albert Hill, on a BBC blog in a build-up to this year's Beijing games. Snell shot to fame at the 1960 Rome Olympics when he defeated world record holder Roger Moens of Belgium to win the 800m title. And four years later in Tokyo, he won the 800m with ease, setting a new Olympic record of 1:45.1. Five days later on the final lap of the 1500m, he ran away from the field to complete his double. Snell is New Zealand's most decorated track athlete with three Olympic golds to his name. He lives in Texas. 
(8 July 2008)

Adventure at speed
Christchurch endurance athlete and orienteering champion Chris Forne, 31, has navigated Team Nike to first place in America's 10-day adventure race, Primal Quest Montana 2008. Over 800km and up heights of more than 30,000m, Forne and his four-time defending team trekked, mountain biked, whitewater kayaked, riverboarded and, in a rare instance, free climbed their way to the finish line. It had been barely a year since Forne joined the team, and for Nike to hand the navigational reigns to him at the time was akin to the Super Bowl champions asking a college star to play quarterback - albeit one who began reading topographic maps at age six. "He's the best I've ever seen on a race course, by far," Nike's captain, Mike Kloser of Vail, would say after the race. What began June 23 as a 56-team competition quickly turned into the latest illustration of why an obscure unit of aerobic mutants can be counted among the most dominant institutions in professional athletics. Forne is "basically king of the thriving endurance-racing world in New Zealand" wrote Colorado paper Summit Daily. "At home, Chris sort of sets the benchmark, and everyone else tries to beat him - in anything," says Aaron Prince, Forne's former teammate and fellow Christchurch native. "If you can get one over Chris, ever, it's a good day." 
(30 June 2008)

These limbs were made for climbing
Kiwi mountaineer Mark Inglis successfully completes the journey to NZ's highest peak, Mt Cook, without a piece of kit he'd come to take for granted on all previous expeditions - his legs. "With my artificial limbs I've got such a dynamic range of motion that I'm not that different to an able-bodied climber", he expounds. After the stresses of the climb, Inglis tops off his successful morning with a 50km bike ride.
(4 February 2002)
      

Celebrity Race
Former Olympic 100m champion Linford Christie narrowly beats rugby star Jonah Lomu in a 50m novelty race set up to promote next year's Commonwealth Games in Manchester. "When he pushed out of the block I thought, he's been practising," comments Christie after his victory.
(11 December 2001)
 

Six months in a leaky boat
Has the round the world race - now the Volvo Ocean Challenge - lost its edge? Sir Peter Blake thinks so. "In the 1970s, adventurers in leaky oilskins set out to sea in yachts that by today's standards are as much like a modern racing yacht as an omnibus to a McLaren," he says. Now, the harsh reality is lost under marketing hype.
( 22 September 2001)
         

Rip roaring history
Surfer Maz Quinn has made history: he's the first New Zealand surfer to qualify for the Surfing Professionals' World Championship Tour. "This is a huge result for Maz and for New Zealand sport in general," says NZ Surfing's Greg Townsend. "The WQS is one of the most competitive sporting circuits in the world."
(27 August 2001)
           

International Peak
New Zealand-born Rhys Millen drives over the competition, posting a record-breaking 11 minutes, 58.53 seconds in the 79th Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.
(1 July 2001)
           

Jolly jodphurs
"Suave, tanned and wearing tight white jodphurs," New Zealander Peter Grace is Britain's best polo coach, teaching the rich and trendy to swing mallets and retain a firm seat at Ascot Park Polo Club.
(29 June 2001)
 

Riding High
New Zealand riders let their legs do the talking for the Pittsburgh Cycling Club.
(10 June 2001)
             

Marathon Mania
The Times previews the mania of marathon running and the annual London race with a history of jogging and the Kiwi who changed the way the world thinks about running. In advocating that "running is not only good for racing. Running is good in itself. And everyone can do it and everyone can benefit..." Arthur Lydiard: spawned a fitness revolution and became one of the world's great track coaches.
(22 April 2001)
 

Running hard
Friends of edge-bred Paul Hewitson "lionise his iron constitution. After one bachelor party that ended at 5am, Hewitson slept for an hour then rose for a 15-mile jaunt. When insomnia strikes, he gets up and runs to Buckhead and back. Three years ago he started running marathons and almost broke 3 hours in his first attempt, a 7-minute per-mile pace".
PDF Copy
(17 April 2001)
                

"Foreign Britain"
"And then there is my ridiculous fantasy that if we are to become a foreign land it might be New Zealand, where, unlike our own benighted Scotland, they know how to play rugby. (Big Hint to the Scotland team: hold on to the ball, and try to keep it away from your opponents.)"
(9 March 2001)
        

Kiwi Brave
"The sight of New Zealand's Travis Wilson in an Atlanta Braves uniform seems as bizarre as anything you might see in Disney World. Especially when you consider that until four years ago Wilson had never played the game."
(27 March 2001)
             

Circus life
New Zealand Olympic gymnast David Phillips has given up the competitive grind for life as a circus performer.
(28 February 2001)
             

Nick heir to Jack, Peter, John
Hutt Valley high school miler Nick Willis has become the fastest miler in New Zealand history, beating the times of Jack Lovelock, Peter Snell and John Walker at the famous Wanganui Cook Gardens.
(14 February 2001)
   

Ice ice baby
Extreme sport doesn't come any cooler: -10º, ice bergs and hurricane-strength winds face three New Zealanders kayaking around the Antarctic peninsula.
(19 January 2001)
              

Shear mind-power
New Zealander Rodney Sutton holds three major shearing records. He credits his success to understanding "what nervous lambs do under pressure".
(4 January 2001)
             

Eco-2001
Seventy-five international teams extreme sport teams will tackle 400km of New Zealand's roughest terrain at ECO-Challenge 2001. Kiwis are feared competitors in extreme multi-sport, "dominating competitions world-wide".
(12 December 2000)
             

Walk over
Kiwi apprentice jockey Michael Walker: one season; a record-breaking 131 winners; "probably the greatest thing to happen to racing for a long time". 
(4 December 2000)

Coin fever
Tennis ace Dominik Hrbaty is a New Zealand coin buff in his spare time: "They are so beautiful, so nice. Every year there is a different picture(?) and on the other side is Queen Elizabeth."
(26 November 2000)
             

Vagana captured
The Bradford Bulls League team have extra muscle in the form of 18-stone Joe Vagana, ex-Warriors. "Joe's capture will send ripples across the game," says Bradford coach Brian Noble.
(21 November 2000)
           

Ali-Khan do it
New Zealand born McGill (Canada) student, Sarah Ali-Khan, wins Quebec Athletic Excellence Award for All-Canadian Track and Field.
(8 November 2000)
                

Murderball awe
New Zealand collected the Bronze at Sydney, impressing with their toughness along the way. "These are the hard men of the Paralympics. New Zealand's heavily-tattoed Curtis Palmer emerged unscathed from a high-impact collision that sent him somersaulting across court, landing on his head."
(26 October 2000)
               

Phar Lap not spiked
A mystery finally solved. Phar Lap, the new bio of the legend concludes that he was not poisoned as previously suspected. His death in America was due to duodenitis proximal jejunitis, a disease not identified until 1983.
(4 October 2000)
           

The hills are alive with the sound of runners
Jonathan Wyatt (1998 Champion) took out the Mountain Running World Trophy at the Bavarian village of Bergen, while the New Zealand Women successfully chased Gold as well.
(17 September 2000)

Biking versus Hiking and the DOC peacemaker
Mountain biker Yuri Kuzyk takes issue with an Ottawa Citizen article claiming that mountain biking erodes mountain trails in Gatineau Park. He cites the hard science of a 1995 New Zealand Department of Conservation Study that shows mountain biking causes no more damage than other human activities in the outdoors including walking.
(26 July 2000)
           

Mandy Smith: hockey's answer to Anna Kournikova 
In an article deploring the emphasis on sex over substance in the sporting press, the Irish Times compares New Zealand hockey's Mandy Smith to Anna Kournikova. This, following a 3-0 drubbing of World and Olympic champions Australia. Will the Kiwis be too hot for Sydney?
(1 July 2000)  

Phoenix live on 
Wellington Phoenix will remain in the A-League until the end of the 2015-16 season. Doubt over the team's future emerged in November last year when AFC president Mohamed bin Hammam said he did not support the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) club remaining in the Australian competition beyond 2011. But the Phoenix's case had been strongly supported by the FFA and chairman Frank Lowy, as well as by New Zealand Football and the Oceania confederation. "This is great news," said Phoenix chief executive Tony Pignata. "We've cleared this hurdle in terms of extending the club's participation in the A-League and we're going to be around for many years to come." New Zealand's only fully professional football club reached new heights in its third season, reaching the A-League's preliminary final before losing to eventual champions Sydney FC in March. 
(20 April 2010)

Texan triumph 
Cambridge 21-year-old Joelle King has beaten Australian favourite Rachael Grinham at the Texas Open squash tournament. King, the reigning Australian Open champion, defeated top seed Grinham 11–8 6–11 11–8 11–9 in Houston to complete a remarkable week for the unseeded champion. As well as defeating former world No.1 Grinham, King knocked out higher ranked players Donna Urquhart and Dominique Lloyd-Walter on her way to the final. It was King's second straight win over the Queenslander, following her first round triumph in last year's New Zealand Open. 
(12 April 2010)

Heart-stopping gold 
Wanaka-based Adam Hall, 22, paralympian gold medallist alpine skier, never had any special treatment says his father dairy farmer Lindsay Hall upon Adam's win in Vancouver at the 2010 Winter Games. "He never got treated any different," Hall senior says. When there are things to be done [around the farm] he'll do them." Born with spina bifida, Hall endured several operations as an infant to correct "all the screwed up nerves" in his back. While many spina bifida sufferers wind up in wheelchairs, Hall can walk, although it's a herky-jerky, knees together, feet wide kind of walk. "I ski a lot better, obviously, than I walk," he says. Hall won the men's standing slalom in heart-stopping fashion, four years after failing to even finish at Turin. With a lead of 2.13 seconds after the first run, Hall was in good position to earn his first Paralympic medal. But two-thirds of the way into a solid second run, he tumbled onto his side just after making a gate. Using his outrigger-equipped poles and a strong upper body, he pushed himself to his feet. "I didn't have time to panic," he says. He later stood up and saluted the crowd with his outrigger raised. (15 March 2010)

Mile win for Willis 
Lower Hutt-born middle distance runner Nick Willis, 27, currently based in Michigan, has won the mile run at the 15th Boston Indoor Games. Willis crossed the finish line in a world leading time of 3:55.26, with American Leer just two strides back in 3:55.66. "I had no idea how I'd do; this was totally surprising to me," said Willis, the silver medalist in the 1500m run at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. "I felt great with two laps to go, but when I crossed the line I was exhausted. I was really glad when Leer took the lead (on lap seven.) I knew I could come back on him, and it gave me a slingshot to work off," he said. Over the weekend Willis placed 5th at the Aviva indoor grand prix athletics meeting in Birmingham — but in the process broke John Walker's 31-year-old 1500m New Zealand indoor record by almost two seconds in three minutes 35.80 seconds
(7 February 2010)

Beijing top spot 
Southland sprinter Edward Dawkins, 20, took the men's individual gold at the Beijing stop of the UCI track cycling World Cup. Dawkins claimed the sprint title with two straight wins against Frenchman Michael D'almeida in the best-of-three final thanks to his strong dash ability. The New Zealand squad won three medals on the final night with the women's pursuit team awarded a silver medal against Australia while Tom Scully and Myron Simpson took bronze in the final of the 40km Madison. The squad returns to New Zealand to prepare for the national track championships in Invercargill next month, which double as the Commonwealth Games Trials.
(25 January 2010)

All Whites make history 
The All Whites have qualified for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa beating Bahrain 1–nil at the Westpac Stadium in Wellington. Striker Rory Fallon, 27, scored the only goal of the game to help New Zealand qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1982. Fallon, who plays for English Championship side Plymouth Argyle, scored the decisive goal just before the half-time break when he headed home from a Bertos corner. New Zealand captain Ryan Nelsen paid tribute to the 35,194 fans — a record for a football match in the country — for their inspirational support at the match. "The crowd was incredible and I don't know if we could have won it without them," the Blackburn Rovers defender said. "They were our 12th man today and they got us home. I've played in some incredible atmospheres but this is right up there." New Zealand Football could earn up to $10m just for qualifying for South Africa and that money will bankroll the development plans. 
(14 November 2009)

Chopping champ
Thirty-six-year-old West Auckland lumberjack Jason Wynyard has won the overall title at the Stihl Timbersports Championships 2009 in Brienz, Switzerland. All participants were among the world elite, but the fastest and technically most perfect in the race was Wynyard, who won four out of six disciplines. World champion Wynyard was delighted with his victory: "After a weak start in the first [discipline] I was pretty well beaten. It was hard work but a great race. Brienz is beautiful, the people were wonderful and I am proud that I've won here. It is a special moment for me." The win in Brienz caps a big year for Wynyard, who took out the Stihl Timbersports series in the US in June. "It's probably the closest event we get to the Olympics in our sport, really, so winning was a really special moment to me," he said. 
(15 September 2009)

Monaco reigns supreme 
New Zealand businessman and philanthropist Owen Glen's three-year-old colt Monaco Consul, raced by jockey Corey Brown, has won the $A1.5 million Victoria Derby at Flemington, one of the most prestigious races in Australia. Monaco Consul is trained by Michael Moroney, who trained Second Coming to win the Derby in 1997 and who also has stables in Matamata. "We trained [Monaco Consul] in the English style and sent him out with a pacemaker a few times and it worked," Moroney said. "He hadn't raced for a month but he has had some very good gallops and eats really well. He has such a good turn of foot and when Corey went for him he put it beyond doubt." The 2500m of the Victoria Derby is regarded as the toughest test for early three-year-olds, but Monaco Consul made it look simple when he and jockey Corey Brown ranged up and went past Extra Zero to beat him by a length. 
(1 November 2009)

Mongolia on horseback 
Tekapo man Dave Murray, 29, now based in Perth, is one of four New Zealanders taking part in the 1000km-long Mongol Derby, which began on August 22 and runs for two weeks. The race follows Genghis Khan's communication system route to get messages from Mongolia to Eastern Europe in a fortnight, which is the 26 riders' time-limit. The other three New Zealanders participating are: South Seas Film and Television School director Dave Coddington of Helensville, and London-based women Charlotte Davison and Hannah Ritchie. Murray, who had to lose 12kg to meet the 85kg limit for riders, is raising money for the Christina Noble Children's Foundation which helps homeless Mongolians by providing them with a ger - a traditional Mongolian felt tent. Prior to the race Murray said he was eagerly anticipating the challenge. "I love setting these sorts of goals and throwing myself in the deep end. It's the sense of adventure, a great opportunity to do something pretty extreme."
(19 August 2009)

Remarkable Wells 
Wanaka skier Jossi Wells, 19, won a silver at the 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games at the Remarkables in Queenstown for the freeski slopestyle event. Wells has a big profile in the United States thanks largely to a silver medal at the most recent Winter X Games. Take it from gold medalist in the event American Thomas Wallisch, Wells is big news overseas. "Jossi's huge in the States - the X Games and the Dew Tour. I've known that name for a while now," Wallisch said. "He's definitely a huge name around the world in skiing." Wells is hoping this Winter Games, which is a New Zealand first and has attracted several Olympic and X Games champions to the slopes of Central Otago, will make him a bit better recognised in his own country. "I'm kind of bigger in the States than I am here in New Zealand. This event is definitely cool to get my profile out there a bit more." 
(20 August 2009)

Ready for battle 
New Zealand's national softball team, The Black Sox, feature in the 'Freeze Frame' segment of ShortList magazine, performing the haka prior to their game against Denmark at last month's World Men's Softball Championship in Saskatoon, Canada. "The ceremonial dance seemed to do the trick," writes Andrew Lowry. "Coming off a four-strong winning streak, the world champions three years running gave Denmark a 16–0 mauling." However, in the final on 27 July against fellow Antipodeans Australia, the haka did little to disquiet their opponents — Australia ended the Black Sox' three-year reign, winning the final 5–0. 
(6 August 2009)

Positive thinking 
All Whites coach Ricki Herbert is confident the All Whites will earn their first ever point in a FIFA Confederations Cup this month in South Africa. "I think we have to believe it's a real possibility," Herbert said. Though the Oceania champions, who are the tallest team in the Confederations Cup tournament, conceded 5&endash;0 to European champions Spain on June 14 in Rustenburg, North West Province, Herbert remains confident. "Iraq gives us a feel for Asian opposition, South Africa a taste of intimidating home support and the match against Spain will be a lesson in intensity and a huge step-up in quality. It's an exciting proposition but one that should gives us plenty of experience to take into two massive games for the sport in New Zealand," Herbert says. This is the squad's third appearance at the global competition.
(13 June 2009)

On Slick for a first 
Teenage jockey Samantha Collett — who in only three years has won more than 100 races — rode Sir Slick in the $AU2 million Emirates Doncaster Mile at Royal Randwick, the "biggest race" she's ever ridden in and the first time three women jockeys have contested an Australian Group One race, including another New Zealander, Samantha Spratt, 21. Collett, 19, doesn't complete her apprenticeship, with leading trainer Mark Walker, until May 2010, but has established herself as one of New Zealand's most outstanding jockeys. Sir Slick, trained by Graham Nicholson, is New Zealand racing's warhorse. The six-time Group One winner has been in full training since August, competing in 17 races during this period. Collett is the daughter of top riders Jim Collett and Trudy Thornton. 
(15 April 2009)

Promoting touch 
New Zealander Miles Darby, 46, IT project manager at Credit Suisse Singapore, is also president of the city's amateur Monsoon Touch Football Club. Darby has been playing the sport in Singapore for over a decade at Turf City with his fellow team-mates as a member of the Touch team from the Wanderers Rugby Football Club. He told The Electric New Paper what the aim of forming such a club is: "Well, I think we needed structure. Touch football suites all ages, shapes, and sizes, and all can enjoy playing the sport because many different levels are catered for — from social to serious, from young to not so young. The aim is to provide an environment for high performance, so individuals and teams can excel." 
(27 February 2009)

Courting comparison 
New Zealand netball is the "main 'girl's game'" and has a "'World Championships' that only Australia and New Zealand can realistically win," writes Frank Shanly in a profile about the sport in Indiana daily newspaper The Bluffton News-Banner. "But then again, how many countries get to even contest 'World Series' baseball?" "Netball is very similar to basketball, with the main obvious differences being that you can't move with the ball, and you only get one point for each basket — or is that a 'net'? In netball, if someone passes you the ball, you have to stop moving immediately and pass it on to someone else. None of this 'dribbling' stuff!" New Zealand's national league competition, the 2009 ANZ Championships, begin in April. The next Netball World Championship will be held in Singapore in 2011. 
(28 January 2009)

Definitely no regrets 
The Kiwis dismissed the sceptics and the Kangaroos to win the Rugby League World Cup in Brisbane, beating the Australians 34-20, their first ever World Cup win. Outside of the New Zealand camp, few gave the Kiwis a prayer of derailing Kangaroos supposedly awaiting their coronation, but the Kiwis were joyously swinging the clunking piece of silverware around their heads after arguably the sport's greatest upset. The Daily Telegraph described the team as "a driven outfit who delivered spectacularly." "We were really gritty, dragged them into an arm wrestle, and we went from there," coach Stephen Kearney said. Captain Nathan Cayless said the win would "take a long time to sink in" and rated it as a clear career highlight. "For sure, that's my grand final, that's the biggest thing for me. I just can't believe it." 
(23 November 2008)

Sailing event makes NZ 
Lake Rotorua will host the 2009 IFDS World Blind Sailing Championships from 12-21 March. Organizing committee chairman Don McGowan says the goal is to provide a world class regatta, combined with a true New Zealand experience for the crews and supporters. "We are expecting between 15 and 25 crews to compete in the event, and so far we have had interest from the United States, Britain, France, Ireland, Norway and Israel," McGowan says. New Zealand will also be entering a team, following on from its first, second and third placings in the three different categories at the 2006 event held at Rhode Island, New York. "The sighted people essentially perform support roles in the crew. The tactician is a sighted person, but the yacht is skippered by a blind person. A sighted person is not allowed to touch the helm at all." 
(20 October 2008)

Fleecing the competition 
New Zealand took home four of the six titles at the 13th Golden Shears World Championships held in Bjerkrheim, Norway, with Stratford farmer Paul Avery, 41 and Napier shearer John Kirkpatrick, 38, coming first and second respectively in the machine-shearing final. Avery told the crowd after his victory: "I've waited 10 years for this." The contingent also won the individual and team events in wool handling. Around 100 sheep shearers from a record 28 countries, including Australia, Montenegro, France, the United States and New Zealand, displayed their skills in the four-day competition, the first time the event was held in a non-English speaking country. Taihape schoolteacher Sheree Alabaster, 32, won the wool handling title. 
(6 October 2008)

On board for gold 
World champion Auckland windsurfer Tom Ashley, 24, sailed past his rivals, to claim first place in the men's competition and a gold medal, the third won by the New Zealand Olympic contingent in Beijing. "It's the most incredible thing. I've worked for this for so many years," said Ashley. "It was pretty much a case of managing it, not trying to let too many guys past and staying between my opposition." On the podium, wearing the gold he said: "I've been kind of on the verge of tears for the last 24 hours. I managed to hold it all in but the relief killed a little bit of all that." In 2006, Ashley was presented with an award of merit from Yachting New Zealand that recognises sailing ability, seamanship and sportsmanship. 
(21 August 2008)

Grass court skill 
New Zealand's Number 1 tennis player Marina Erakovic, 20, who has risen 100 places in world rankings to within the top 50, is compared with sporting great Justine Henin on Wimbledon's official site. In her second round match against German Julia Goerges, Erakovic went into the match with "an astonishing statistic." "She is third in the all-time grass court leaders behind Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, with a win percentage of 87.5 per cent, just ahead of Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams. With her 35 wins and five losses record on the surface, she controlled the match. Like Justine Henin, the New Zealander is an amazing striker of the ball and has every shot in the book. Furthermore, she showed great maturity for her age in knowing what shot to play." Later this year, Erakovic will compete in the Beijing Olympics and at the US Open. 
(26 June 2008)

Spontaneous hors concours 
Mark Todd, 51, and his Olympic stead, 10-year-old Gandalf made for a surprise entry at a Lincolnshire dressage show. Trudy Clark, who runs twice-monthly affiliated competitions at Elms Farm Equestrian Centre, could barely believe it when she realised it was the eventing gold medallist, who has come out of eight years retirement to contend the Olympic Games in Beijing. Clark said Todd did the medium hors concours and an advanced medium. "We were all a bit open-mouthed and very excited to see how he would get on," she said. Then "Toddy" posed for pictures and signed autographs for the fans lucky enough to see their hero at such a low-key event. Todd has represented New Zealand at five Olympic Games and has won two individual gold medals. 
(3 June 2008)

MurderBall
Wheelchair rugby, "Murderball" as it's known by the players, is the only full contact wheelchair sport at the Paralympics. New Zealand is ranked second, behind the USA.
(8 October 2000)
              

Tuaman
''I discovered at an early age that I had something special,'' says championship contender David Tua. ''It's a God-given talent I have to knock people out.'' It is a gift rewarded only in one place. Only in the boxing ring, which is where he will earn US$3.5 million to try to render Lennox Lewis null and void.
(September 2000)