Going for gold at Glasgow
Tony Smith
training benefits, but she’ll be conserving her undoubted strength for the more competitive and lucrative IAAF Diamond League series.
Glasgow could see the resurrection of middle- distance man Nick Willis, who, at 31, should still be sprightly enough to ascend the 1500m dais for the third time and atone for his London Olympics final flop.
After three world championship bronze medals in the 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle, swimming ace Lauren Boyle should get gold at Glasgow. Sophie Pascoe, the fivetime world Paralympian swimming champ, should also belatedly celebrate her 21st birthday with a gold medal at her first Commonwealth Games. The Christchurch swimmer smashes world records for fun.
There’s no rowing on the Games programme but cycling is a major sport at Commonwealth level and the Kiwi trackies, plus road rider Linda Villumsen, can expect a veritable medals haul in Glasgow.
Oh yes, the Silver Ferns are assured of at least a silver medal in the Glasgow edition of the Groundhog Day trans- Tasman Commonwealth Games netball final.
But what else is there outside Glasgow? Certainly not Edinburgh.
The rugby and cricket World Cups don’t take place till 2015, the year New Zealand will also host the Fifa under- 20 World Cup tournament. Netball’s world championships are also slated for Sydney next year.
There is the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia in February. But Annelise Coberger’s slalom silver medal in France in 1992 remains our sole success. Hopes are high that Wanaka- based brothers Jossi and Byron Wells might break the drought this year.
But we’ll be relying on the two Rs – rugby and rowing – again.
The rowing world championships, mercifully, are held every year outside the Olympics. Expect the Kiwi boat men and women to improve on their 2013 tally of five medals ( just one gold) at the 2014 regatta in France in late August.
The All Blacks can’t do any better than 2013 when they became the first international team to win every test in a calendar year since rugby turned professional in 1996.
Or can they? Should Steve Hansen set his team the challenge of winning every test by a bonus point margin through scoring four tries or more?
Cycling is one of our most successful sports and the Kiwi contingent can expect to score some silverware at the UCI world track cycling championships in the high altitude climes of Cali in Colombia in February. New Zealand has always had its share of excellent endurance riders, particularly pursuit legends Gary Anderson, Sarah Ulmer and Hayden Roulston. But our speed merchants are emerging as a world force, particularly the sprint team and keirin ace Simon van Velthooven.
The Black Sticks will contest the men’s and women’s World Cup hockey tournaments in Holland in June. The men are ranked seventh in the world and unlikely to be a serious medal contender. The women, while ranked fifth, have been rebuilding since the London Olympics where they finished fourth.
The hockey World Cups should be taken much more seriously by New Zealanders. Hockey is, after all, a much bigger sport internationally, than rugby league or netball.
New Zealand’s White Sox will also be going Dutch for August’s women’s softball world championships but it’s been 24 years since they last stood on the podium.
2014 is sure to have its highights but it’s basically the entree to 2015’ s main feast.