Brooke on Board
Former AB Zinzan Brooke shucks his rugby jersey and climbs aboard the Team Veritas yacht for a leg of the BT Global Challenge.
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Smail Away
Seven days after coming home to take the New Zealand Open, David Smail won his second professional tournament after eight years playing – the Canon Challenge in Sydney.
Iron Birthday Suits
“It was my destiny to win today,” said birthday boy Kiwi Bryan Rhodes after his record-breaking 8hrs 41:53 win in the Malaysian Ironman Triathlon.
Fast Sail
Grant Dalton’s big cat Club Med stripped 33 hours off the trans-Indian Ocean record, sighting Australia seven days, fourteen hours after passing the Cape of Good Hope.
Tartan Edged
We all like success: the Scots are not immune, claiming Michael Campell’s edge swing as their own.
Smiling Like
Smiling Like is apprentice Michael Walker’s lucky horse. The Wellington Cup was her second victory with the “boom” New Zealander in the saddle.
America’s Cup Turns 150
“It would have felt very wrong to have hosted a celebration of the fact that we lost the cup in 1851, haven’t seen it since and are making no attempt to get it back,” says John…
Ed for Heights
“I was frequently scared and often tired, but there were few moments I would have willingly missed,” says Sir Edmund Hillary in the biography for children, Triumph on Everest.
Eco-racing Comes Home
Top eco-racing teams have registered for October’s South Island race, including New Zealand’s Team Fairydown. “New Zealand, being the birth place of Expedition Racing, is the perfect location for the top teams in the world to experience…
Swinging into History
“Ant Gear guaranteed his place in the record books when, at precisely 12am on 1 January, 2000, he teed off at the Manawatu Golf Club in the North Island.” Gear’s wife stood on the fairways with…
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.
Williams Foundation
Kiwi super-caddie Steve Williams will auction “stuff” from Tiger Woods and other top golfers to fund promising New Zealand talent.
Cup Challenge
Seattle telecommunications billionaire Craig McCaw is sending a team to challenge for the cup – American sailors well leavened with ex-Team NZites.
Running Tragedy
New Zealand’s world record runner and Olympic gold medallist John Walker’s Parkinson’s highlights the increasing incidence of the disease.
Splitting the Difference
Grant Dalton’s playing canny in the Race, “splitting the difference between east and west,” lying comfortably in second place.
Kingsley Link
Phil Kingsley-Jones manages Jonah – his son, Kingsley Jones, has been likened to All Black Josh Kronfeld.
Bank on Campbell
Michael Campbell, in “irresistible” form, caps a brilliant year by claming the title of New Zealand’s best-paid sportsman from Steve Williams, caddy for Tiger Woods.
Shear Mind-power
New Zealander Rodney Sutton holds three major shearing records. He credits his success to understanding “what nervous lambs do under pressure”.
Precision Boat
Details of the construction Louis Vuitton challenger Young America, designed by Aucklander Bruce Farr.
First Golf – Definitely
“Armed with a three iron, a luminous golf ball and a light strapped to his head, Ant Gear dashed around the course at North Island Manawatu Golf Club in 114 – eight shots better than his…
Sixties Icon
Check out Sixties Motor Racing for Bruce McLaren shots, including New Zealand’s greatest driver salon racing in a Jaguar (choose Catalogue on Palawan website). McLaren is also featured in British Esquire‘s quarterly sports supplement.
Gender Tee-off
Michael Campbell is one of four top male golfing stars to meet women’s #1 Karrie Webb in a million dollar “Battle of the Sexes” series later this year.
Awards of Merit
Controversial clergyman and academic Lloyd Geering carried off the highest honour in the New Years’ list, Principal Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. Colin “Pinetree” Meads, All Black 1957-71 and all-time greatest AB, is one…
They’re Off
The Race, featuring New Zealand skipper Grant Dalton, kicked off in Barcelona on December 31. The giant catamarans are expected to circumnavigate the globe in around 65 days.
Tennis Ace
Since coming to New Zealand six years ago, 19 year old Ilke Gers has developed into a potential tennis champion, currently aiming to break into the world top 400.
Resolute Squash
Ireland’s “cultural aspects” have drawn New Zealander Andrew Flemming away from exercise, but regular squash is on his New Year’s resolution list.
Campbell’s Leap
“The biggest move outside the top 10 was by New Zealander Michael Campbell who leaped from 108th to 14th” in the golf world rankings.”
Shears, Mate
Among elections, space-stations and UFO conventions, Masterton’s 40th annual Golden Shears competition rates a mention.
Sunshine for Sunline
It’s official – Sunline is the Russell Crowe of the racing world. The New Zealand and Australian horse of the year, Kiwi Sunline is also Australasia’s biggest money winner. After her December 17 Hong Kong mile…
Sea Dog
Sailing legend Grant Dalton’s a professional: ‘Treat Dalton like a wizened old sea dog and your hand will disappear into gritted teeth. “Romance of the sea? Doesn’t mean a shit to me,” he says. “You get…
Walker Chases Health
1976 Olympic 1500m champion John Walker was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease three years ago. “I would give up all my medals and all the world records for my health,” says the New Zealander who cracked 100…
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”.
Because It’s There
Slovenian Davo Karnicar, the first person to ski down Everest, now plans to slalom Aoraki (Mt Cook).
Coutts Coming
The Swiss syndicate headed by Russell Coutts has been cleared to challenge in 2003, after doubts about the legality of the entry.
Walk Over
Kiwi apprentice jockey Michael Walker: one season; a record-breaking 131 wins; “probably the greatest thing to happen to racing for a long time”.
White Flight = All Black
British journalists fear reverse colonisation as staunch Polynesian men flex their muscles on the rugby field.
Edge of Safety
Entrants in “the Race” must pass through Cook Strait – the Southern-most point of safety in the opinion of race organisers.
1953 – Hillary’s Year
“It was also a year in which a white man and a brown man, held together by a light nylon rope, climbed the highest mountain. In this feat of the New Zealand beekeeper, Edmund Hillary,…
Conner On
Dennis Conner will skipper the New York Boat Club’s 2003 challenge, hoping to end the Cup’s twenty-year residence away from the NYYC.
Tabloid Corner
Reports of a Mandy Smith-Dean Barker romance cause international consternation as dreams of a super-child assail NZ sport fans.
Because it’s 50 Years
June 2002 will see Nepal begin year-long celebrations marking a half century since Tenzing and Hillary knocked the bugger off.
Minus Fours
Nude golf will be swinging at the January Mackenzie Muster naturist festival near Lake Tekapo. Hole in one?
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.” …
Oracle Speaks
Flippin heck, the Chris Dickson-skippered boat for Larry Ellison’s Oracle America’s Cup challenge does an unchartered turn during a training run on the Waitemata. The boat’s 21- ton keel “inexplicably sheared off”.
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.
Edge Jet
“Created in New Zealand, Jet Sprint Racing places over-powered engines into undersized boats and blasts racers through swampy, shallow and tight cornered courses.”
Barker on Pace
Team NZ skipper Dean Barker tops the November World Match Race Rankings, beating his lieutenant Bertrand Pace into second place.
Muscling In
Wellington will host the 2002 World Bodybuilding Championships. The influx of talent should put paid to the brain-drain hysteria.
Tumeke Te Nana
Karl Te Nana picked up Man of the Tournament and R10 000 after New Zealand’s winning sevens effort in Durban.
Howzat?
John Wright gets personal on his new job as coach of the Indian cricket team: “One of the challenges of the job is to communicate with people. You have to be sensitive about it.”…
Squash Title
World #1 Leilani Joyce was narrowly beaten in the final round of the World Women’s Open by Auckland-based Australian Carol Owens, who has indicated she’d like a place on the New Zealand squad in the future….
Blinding Brilliance
Blind cricket is played with wicker balls, footballs and cricket balls, all with rattles inside so the players can hear where to hit. The New Zealand team are bowled over by England at the World Cup,…
