Medal Haul in Beijing
Hastings twins Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell took gold medals in the double skulls beating their German rivals by 0.01 sec, the win on the same day Mahe Drysdale won a bronze in the single skulls and…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
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…
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…
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…
Record Without Air
Wellington architect Kathryn McPhee, 29, has broken a freediving world record by two metres swimming underwater without breath for 151 metres, in a time of 2mins 48sec. Freediving, also known as breath-hold or apnoea…
Memories of Bledisloe
In 2000, in front of 109,874 spectators jammed into Sydney’s Stadium Australia, Jonah Lomu landed the tenth try in a nerve-racking Bledisloe match beating Australia 39-35. Swerving in towards his wing opponent, Andrew Walker,…
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…
Toward NASCAR
Auckland speedway driver and Midget racer Michael Pickens, 25, is on the way to his dream of a NASCAR future getting stock car experience on paved tracks this summer in the ASA Late Model…
Against the Wind
Three-time world champion windsurfer Barbara Kendall is off to Beijing and her fifth Olympics. Conditions at the sailing venue in Qingdao would be difficult, Kendall said. “It’s just not a windy spot. If we’re…
Lomu in Charity Match
Rugby World Cup’s top try-scorer Jonah Lomu, 33, will play for the International Select XV in a charity match called, ‘Help the Heroes’ at Twickenham in September. The fundraiser will be staged to help…
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…
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…
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,…
Campbell’s Beginnings
Hawera-born, Brighton-based golfer Michael Campbell is eating bacon sandwiches at the Royal Ashdown Forest clubhouse in Sussex where he explains his golfing initiation in Taranaki. “I started playing on a local course where you…
Coolest Boat in the World
New Zealand Earthrace skipper Pete Bethune has circumnavigated the globe in record-breaking time, 11 minutes short of 61 days in a £3 million 24m tri-hull wavepiercer powered on cooking oil. “I am elated,” Bethune…
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…
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…
Juniors Bag Victory
New Zealand has won the world junior rugby under-20 championships in Swansea, Wales, beating England 38-3 in a four-try match. The young All Blacks may have been the overwhelming favourites from the start of…
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…
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….
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…
Spontaneous Hors Concurs
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…
Dean’s Ultimate Crusade
The Crusaders, who have won more titles than any other team in the franchise, have claimed another winning this year’s Super 14 against the Waratahs and coach Robbie Deans, who leaves to coach the…
Chip off the Old Block
Jeremy Coney, as announcer on Sky TV’s ‘Test Match Special’, is “cricket’s answer to the poet and critic Tom Paulin”, according to Guardian sports blogger Rob Bagchi. A guest on TMS for the last 20 years,…
Fear the Flanker
Forty-eight test veteran, Jerry Collins, 27, has announced his retirement from New Zealand rugby. Collins said: “It’s difficult for me to talk about myself but I know I’ve always been committed to every minute of every…
Ice Man Wins Indy 500
New Zealander Scott Dixon, 27, woke to the traditional 6am race-day explosion, ate American pancakes with hot syrup for breakfast and then from pole position drove 200 laps to win the 92nd Indianapolis 500,…
Luxury Golf Getaways
The Lodge at Kauri Cliffs in the Bay of Islands was voted one of New Zealand’s best resorts in 2007 and one of the top 20 resorts in the world by readers of Andrew…
For the Good of All
Lake Karapiro in Cambridge is the headquarters for Rowing New Zealand’s centralized training programme which has produced “one of the strongest rowing squads in the world” on a budget of just four million dollars….
Oliver the Oxonian
Former Highlander Anton Oliver, 32, will play the last rugby matches of his career at Oxford University while he studies for an MSc in Biodiversity, Environment and Management. Oliver, winner of 55 New Zealand…
Out of the Shade
Sir Richard Hadlee and his father, Walter are probably one of the most successful father-son sporting combinations according to the Guardian’s Will Buckley, but this son doesn’t want to be compared. Richard Hadlee,…
Union Commute
First five-eighth and fullback Aucklander Nick Evans has signed a three-year contract with English side the Harlequins for the 2008-2009 Guinness Premiership season. Considered the high-quality understudy to Daniel Carter, Evans is one of…
Oram Fit for Lords
Palmerston North Black Caps all-rounder Jacob Oram, 29, has recovered from stress-related injury and is braced for the first Test against England at Lords on May 15. Oram’s economy rate of 2.4 is the best among…
Reed Races for US
Palmerston North-born Matt Reed is 6-foot-5 and the world’s tallest triathelete. Two weeks ago Reed, 32, won the US men’s team trials in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and secured a place on the American Olympic team….
Bond Says It Like It Is
Shane Bond, ex-Black Cap fast bowler and now in the money at the Indian Cricket League’s Delhi Giants, says the decision to go to India is a “no brainer“. Though he will double his income,…
Nadal’s NZ Predecessor
Christchurch-born and educated Anthony Wilding was a world tennis champion from 1911-1914, and up until this week held a 90-year undefeated consecutive record for winning four titles in Monte Carlo. Overall, Wilding…
Keoghan the Sportsman
New Zealand television presenter Phil Keoghan donned a kilt, picked up a 7 iron and hit a golf ball across Scotland. As host of The Amazing Race, Keoghan has travelled the world and done…
Gold in Manchester
New Zealander Hayden Godfrey has won the men’s omnium title at the track cycling world championships in Manchester. The omnium was introduced at world championship level last year and includes five events: the…
Fleming’s New Game Plan
Stephen Fleming made a gracious departure from the Black Caps on the fourth day of the final Test against England in Napier. Although New Zealand had a disappointing loss, Fleming left Test cricket much as he…
Chopper Challenge
Mount Cook National Park is to host the 2008 World Heli Challenge over two weeks in August. After a six-year hiatus the competition, deemed the most legendary freeriding and freeskiing event on the planet,…
Alaskan War Chant
Taranaki basketball player Jeremiah Trueman, 19, has introduced New Zealand’s haka to his Alaskan team, the UAA Seawolves, and the crowds love it. Trueman, a junior transfer to the Seawolves, said he was trying…
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…
Skier Continues Streak
Otago paralympian Adam Hall has slalomed to yet another victory at the Wells Fargo Disabled Invitational at Winter Park in Colorado, climbing to the top of the medal table winning gold, his seventh medal this…
Brown the New Nobilo
Wellington golfer Mark Brown has had a successful week in India, winning first the Asian Tour’s SAIL Open then clinching the US$2.5 million Johnnie Walker Classic, making him one of only six New…
NZ Makes a Dash
Seachange is primed to be the first ever New Zealand-trained horse to race at Royal Ascot. She will contest the Group Two Windsor Forest Stakes over a mile in June, if she wins…
Holding His Breath
Dispensing with weights, ropes and flippers, New Zealander William Trubridge descended to 82 metres and broke the world record for constant weight diving without fins. Now living and working in the Bahamas, Trubridge…
Black Beauty Tops Rankings
Team NZ has won its first A1 Grand Prix race on home soil in Taupo, and is now the overall series leader. Black Beauty driver Jonny Reid won the Sprint Race and finished…
Budding Swim Star
Te Haumi Maxwell, 13, has been hailed as the “best male swimming prospect since Ian Thorpe” in the Australian press. Maxwell was born in NZ but raised in Australia, and is due to become…
Hall Takes out Huntsman
Paralympian ski racer Adam Hall has become the first New Zealander to win the United States’prestigious Huntsman Cup. The 20-year-old from Outram won seven gold medals in a row to claim the Cup,…
Beauty and the Beast
Black Beauty driver Jonny Reid took on a Boeing 777 at Auckland International Airport this month, in a dramatic promotional stunt for January’s A1 Grand Prix event in Taupo. The race car and…
Taranaki’s Silver Surfer
Taranaki teenager Paige Hareb has stunned the international surfing world by reaching the final of the Billabong World Pro Junior in Sydney. Hareb, 17, finished in second place behind Australian favourite Sally Fitzgibbons,…
World’s Fastest Win
The Black Caps have won their three-match home series against Bangladesh in record-breaking style. NZ reached Bangladesh’s total of 93 all out with 44 overs and ten wickets to spare, replacing India’s 2001 thrashing of Kenya…
Round Two Record Attempt
NZ speedboat Earthrace will begin its second attempt to break the world circumnavigation record in March 2008. Earthrace is using the record attempt to raise awareness for environmentally friendly biofuel. “The record is just a small…
Second Chance for Henry
Graham Henry has been reappointed as the All Blacks’ head coach, despite widespread criticism of his 2007 Rugby World Cup campaign. Henry, who has vowed to learn from his World Cup mistakes, has signed a two-year…
Beckham Fever Hits Wellington
David Beckham‘s Australasian tour with the LA Galaxy was a resounding success for NZ soccer. A record crowd of 31,853 turned up to see the Galaxy play newly minted NZ side the Wellington Phoenix at…
Age No Barrier
Sir Bob Charles made history at this year’s NZ Open by becoming the oldest man to make the cut on a major non-seniors tour. The 71-year-old New Zealander finished four under par and tied…
High Seas Drama
A book detailing the tumultuous Earthrace mission to date has been published in time for Christmas. First Time Around by Scott Fratcher follows the state-of-the-art boat on its mission to promote biodiesel fuel…
