OMEN
03-26-2006, 08:52 PM
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GOLDEN GIRLS: Irene van Dyk and Belinda Colling celebrate as the Silver Ferns defeated Australia to win gold at the Commonwealth Games.
All's well that end's well. Gold medals to Nick Willis and the Silver Ferns saved New Zealand's Commonwealth Games campaign in one wonderful weekend in Melbourne.
The Kiwi charge had been at risk of being mired in mediocrity till a never-to-be forgotten night on the temporary track at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday.
No disrespect to the shot put, shooting, sevens and swimming, but nothing quite beats a gold medal in a blue-riband track event like the 1500m – especially given New Zealand's storied history in the glamour middle-distance race.
It's been a long time between electrolyte fluid replacements since New Zealand athletics has produced a metric mile star worthy of the crown once worn by Jack Lovelock, Peter Snell and John Walker.
Forget the fact that some of the top-ranked Kenyans chose not to come to Melbourne, or that Australia's great white hope Craig Mottram hit the deck with 700m to go.
Willis was a worthy winner. He'd have had too swift a finishing kick for Mottram, a 5000m specialist.
Ironically, Willis is around the same age – 22 – as Walker was when the Kiwi great finished a narrow second to Filbert Bayi in a race still billed as the greatest 1500m in history, at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch.
We were weaned on Walker's world-record breaking feats in the mile, told tales of Lovelock, his Olympic triumph and his untimely death, and were awed at the excellence of Snell, Murray Halberg and the rest of "Arthur's Boys" from master-coach Arthur Lydiard's training stable.
We have waited 30 years – since Walker's Olympic gold at Montreal – for someone to pick up the baton (if the poor men's 4x100m relay team will forgive the comparison).
There have been contenders and pretenders. Now there is a new champion to cheer. Willis is everything the Kiwi public and media craves in a sports star – humble, intelligent quick-witted and apologetic about his American accent. From humble Hutt Valley, he should be given the keys to the city. Perhaps the council could name a major thoroughfare after him. Willis St, anyone?
A keen student of track history, he regards it as "a great honour" to be mentioned in the same breath as Lovelock, who won gold at the 1934 Empire Games mile in London, and Snell, who prevailed in Perth in 1962.
Both men went on to win the Olympic mile two years after their Empire efforts. Dare we dream now that Willis can follow in their spike-marks at Beijing? Perhaps.
Melbourne 2006 unearthed two superstars of New Zealand athletics – Willis and shot put champion Valerie Vili. Who remembers Beatrice Faumuina's "not-my-day" choke in the discus final now?
New Zealand's Commonwealth Games campaign was a bit like a shop-bought cream sponge. All cream on the top and a reasonably sound base, but little substance in between.
Moss Burmester (another unassuming hero) kickstarted the tournament in the best possible fashion – with a first-day gold and a Games record in the pool. It was a major morale-booster in much the same way as Dick Tayler's legendary 10,000m victory in 1974 was.
Then Gordon Tietjens' sevens team won its third successive gold medal, against the odds.
But after the success of Burmester and the sevens team, the Kiwis' gold-rush stalled for four agonisingly long days. We had been stuck in the bronze age (with slivers of silver) and a litany of failures or frustrating fourth-place finishes.
But Vili, surely an Olympic champion in the making, and Southbridge shooter Graham Ede struck paydirt last Wednesday, restoring some lustre and slowing the Kiwis' calamitous slide down the medals table before Willis and the netballers added the polish.
So New Zealand's Melbourne campaign ended as it started – swimmingly. But there is much work to be done in many sports to get our athletes up to speed for Beijing.
Anyone glued to the television coverage from Melbourne will have been reminded there is much more to New Zealand sport than rugby, league, netball and cricket. – Fairfax
Stuff.NZ
GOLDEN GIRLS: Irene van Dyk and Belinda Colling celebrate as the Silver Ferns defeated Australia to win gold at the Commonwealth Games.
All's well that end's well. Gold medals to Nick Willis and the Silver Ferns saved New Zealand's Commonwealth Games campaign in one wonderful weekend in Melbourne.
The Kiwi charge had been at risk of being mired in mediocrity till a never-to-be forgotten night on the temporary track at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday.
No disrespect to the shot put, shooting, sevens and swimming, but nothing quite beats a gold medal in a blue-riband track event like the 1500m – especially given New Zealand's storied history in the glamour middle-distance race.
It's been a long time between electrolyte fluid replacements since New Zealand athletics has produced a metric mile star worthy of the crown once worn by Jack Lovelock, Peter Snell and John Walker.
Forget the fact that some of the top-ranked Kenyans chose not to come to Melbourne, or that Australia's great white hope Craig Mottram hit the deck with 700m to go.
Willis was a worthy winner. He'd have had too swift a finishing kick for Mottram, a 5000m specialist.
Ironically, Willis is around the same age – 22 – as Walker was when the Kiwi great finished a narrow second to Filbert Bayi in a race still billed as the greatest 1500m in history, at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch.
We were weaned on Walker's world-record breaking feats in the mile, told tales of Lovelock, his Olympic triumph and his untimely death, and were awed at the excellence of Snell, Murray Halberg and the rest of "Arthur's Boys" from master-coach Arthur Lydiard's training stable.
We have waited 30 years – since Walker's Olympic gold at Montreal – for someone to pick up the baton (if the poor men's 4x100m relay team will forgive the comparison).
There have been contenders and pretenders. Now there is a new champion to cheer. Willis is everything the Kiwi public and media craves in a sports star – humble, intelligent quick-witted and apologetic about his American accent. From humble Hutt Valley, he should be given the keys to the city. Perhaps the council could name a major thoroughfare after him. Willis St, anyone?
A keen student of track history, he regards it as "a great honour" to be mentioned in the same breath as Lovelock, who won gold at the 1934 Empire Games mile in London, and Snell, who prevailed in Perth in 1962.
Both men went on to win the Olympic mile two years after their Empire efforts. Dare we dream now that Willis can follow in their spike-marks at Beijing? Perhaps.
Melbourne 2006 unearthed two superstars of New Zealand athletics – Willis and shot put champion Valerie Vili. Who remembers Beatrice Faumuina's "not-my-day" choke in the discus final now?
New Zealand's Commonwealth Games campaign was a bit like a shop-bought cream sponge. All cream on the top and a reasonably sound base, but little substance in between.
Moss Burmester (another unassuming hero) kickstarted the tournament in the best possible fashion – with a first-day gold and a Games record in the pool. It was a major morale-booster in much the same way as Dick Tayler's legendary 10,000m victory in 1974 was.
Then Gordon Tietjens' sevens team won its third successive gold medal, against the odds.
But after the success of Burmester and the sevens team, the Kiwis' gold-rush stalled for four agonisingly long days. We had been stuck in the bronze age (with slivers of silver) and a litany of failures or frustrating fourth-place finishes.
But Vili, surely an Olympic champion in the making, and Southbridge shooter Graham Ede struck paydirt last Wednesday, restoring some lustre and slowing the Kiwis' calamitous slide down the medals table before Willis and the netballers added the polish.
So New Zealand's Melbourne campaign ended as it started – swimmingly. But there is much work to be done in many sports to get our athletes up to speed for Beijing.
Anyone glued to the television coverage from Melbourne will have been reminded there is much more to New Zealand sport than rugby, league, netball and cricket. – Fairfax
Stuff.NZ