Politics: Helen Clark to the rescue

Prime Minister Helen Clark sprang to her Australian counterpart's defence on Thursday when an Australian journalist asked John Howard if the Sydney Olympics would be remembered for its athlete drug busts.

Clark jumped in, before Howard could answer, saying she thought the Games would be remembered for the ``fantastic successes of Australian athletes''.

Howard, who has positively glowed in the reflected glory of Australia's medal winners, then chipped in that he ``wouldn't dissent from that, but can I say that the Sydney Games will be remembered for the stunning success they have been''.

When he intimated surprise at the ``discordant question'', the journalist then volunteered that there had been a record number of athletes testing positive.

As Howard stumbled to answer, Clark came to his aid again.

``There's been a record number of competitors,'' she said, before Howard added that it was also a sign the drug testing system was working.

Asked if he had seen Australia's Jane Saville disqualified from the 20km walk when she was about 120 metres from a gold medal, Howard said he was in political talks all day but had heard about the incident and was sorry for Saville.

Little did the assembled Australian and New Zealand journalists know at the time of the joint prime ministerial press conference that a New Zealand judge, Jan Cameron, may have had a hand in the disqualification. It could have been raised as another trans-Tasman point of contention alongside defence spending and immigration.

Earlier, Clark reiterated the need for New Zealand to have a Games post-mortem if the public wants the Government to put more money into high performance sport.

``It has not been the greatest Olympics for us - no fault of the team,'' she said.

``They have done the best they could but on the day we have not done as well as perhaps the public at home hoped.''

There was little to change that perception in the three sports New Zealand contested today at the Games.

The nation's last good medal chance in the yachting, the Rod Davis-skippered Soling, lost their sail-off for the semifinals against the Netherlands. The sail-off took place because of a Dutch protest against their original omission from the semifinals.

The omens were against Davis and crew before the start. They arrived late when their bus was caught in a traffic jam and then nearly collided with a ferry.

While New Zealand's sailing team are left with only a slim mathematical chance of winning a medal in the Star class, Australia won gold in the women's 470 gold medal - with former New Zealand Olympian Jenny Armstrong at the helm.

In the show-jumping, first-round leaders Bruce Goodin and Lenaro dropped a couple of rails and incurred water penalties but still managed to qualify 20th for Sunday's final. His New Zealand team-mate Peter Breakwell and Leonson missed the cut at 55th.

Another expatriate Kiwi outshone her New Zealand rivals. Samantha McIntosh, representing Bulgaria on Royal Discovery, qualified 17th for the final.

New Zealand's freestyle wrestler Martin Liddle was eliminated after losing his two 54kg fights on Thursday.

- NZPA