Tua Again
“A crunching left hook has put Tua back in the heavyweight championship picture.”
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Cross-course Appeal
“Sunline, a huge bay five-year-old, is one of those rare beasts to have jumped the fence between her sport and the wider public. She has her own website, an official fan-club and a range of merchandise.”…
“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…
Awesome Dame
New Zealand thoroughbred superpower Sunline receives “spine-tingling” farewell from Sydney. “She is the best horse I will ever train,” states trainer Trevor McKee.
Vagana Bio
New Zealander Joe Vagana, “one of the best packmen in the world”, is set to be a star with English club Bradford Bulls.
Circus Life
New Zealand Olympic gymnast David Phillips has given up the competitive grind for life as a circus performer.
Adventure on Air
The mini-series of the Discovery Channel World Championship Adventure Race, run in the South Island last November, will air on the Discovery in late April, showcasing some of the New Zealand’s toughest terrain.
Sydders Running
The Sydney Half-Marathon turns ten. Back in 1996, New Zealand woman Nyla Carroll won the women’s section so fast the official nearly missed her dash over the finish line.
Snow Queen
New Zealand snowboard star Juliane Bray crowned world champ at Japan’s World Cup Snowboard.
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.
Wonderboy
New Zealand apprentice jockey Michael Walker 16 years old, 18 months riding, 224 winners, 100 this half-season. Phenomenal.
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.
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.
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…
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.
Running Tragedy
New Zealand’s world record runner and Olympic gold medallist John Walker’s Parkinson’s highlights the increasing incidence of the disease.
Shear Mind-power
New Zealander Rodney Sutton holds three major shearing records. He credits his success to understanding “what nervous lambs do under pressure”.
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.
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.
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…
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).
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”.
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,…
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.” …
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.
Muscling In
Wellington will host the 2002 World Bodybuilding Championships. The influx of talent should put paid to the brain-drain hysteria.
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….
Special League
The New Zealand team “ran out of juice” in the final, according to Frank Endacott, but they received praise from England’s coach for their semi-final performance: “I thought New Zealand were a bit special,” said John Kear….
Southern Travail
“The temperature will drop as low as minus 10 degrees, waves will be as high as 4 meters and the wind will be as strong as 40 knots.” None of which deterred winning home team Propeller…
One Love
Bob Brett used to correct Boris Becker’s backhand. Now he’s formed a Paris academy to coach young stars, including fourteen-year-old New Zealander Eden Marama.
Home Brew
New Zealand horse takes out the Melbourne Cup. “Brilliantly ridden by 20-year-old South Australian jockey Kerrin McEvoy, the regally bred Brew made light of 49kg when scoring a two-length victory after starting from the outside barrier.”
Ali-Khan Do It
New Zealand born McGill (Canada) student, Sarah Ali-Khan, wins Quebec Athletic Excellence Award for All-Canadian Track and Field.
Tua Much
It wasn’t his destiny this time. Pre- and post-fight opinion on Tua-Lennox.Pre in the Sunday Times, New York Daily News, USA Today and the Scotsman. Tua’s toxic hair at News24. Post in Las Vegas Sun, New York and Daily News.
Going Cold Kiwi
The League World Cup Lebanon vs NZ match was played in bitter weather. Three Lebanese players became hypothermic, but the New Zealanders seemed to cope OK. “The New Zealanders were probably used to it,” said…
League of Their Own
The Aotearoa Maori League team is “modelled on the Maori battalion,” says John Tamihere. “It will be a team of origin not of residence. And that’s great, it doesn’t matter if they’re on Mars, they’re still Maori.”
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…
Kiwi-Pom Oggie Oi
Ron Knox, originally of England, now New Zealand, introduced the stadium-filling “Oggie, Oggie, Oggie, Oi, Oi Oi” chant to the ockers. “I wonder if they will send me a gold medal,” says Ron.
Choice Joyce
Leilani Joyce, New Zealand #1 since ’97, didn’t drop a game on the way to becoming British Open Champion and World Squash #1. “The plan was quite simple,” says Joyce of her final game against England’s…
His Way
Road cyclists usually compete in teams for strategy and support. North Hastings 18-year-old Jeremy Yates, the new Junior Men’s Road Cycling World Champion. Yates beat 166 international riders, sprinting the last 4kms of the 127km race in…
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.
Speed + Power = KO
That’s the equation chalked on Kiwi David Tua’s wall as the build up to the Tua-Lewis fight continues. In this interview Tua promises to put that equation into practice. He also talks about the importance of…
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.
Jumpin’ Jai
With a name like Taurima, he must be one of us. Jai Taurima, the Queensland-born son of a Maori father, just missed the gold in the long-jump, but a personal best of 8.49 metres was enough…
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.
