Bowls: Millie makes her mark from above

When Marina Khan found a feather on the green at the State Lawn Bowls Centre in Melbourne, she knew that a Commonwealth Games medal was on the way for she and sister Jan.

The feather is a strong link between the Khan sisters, Jan (47) and Marina (40), and their mother Millie, the famed New Zealand bowls player remembered not just for a long and successful international career. Millie sobbed as she stood on the silver medal dais in Auckland's 1990 Games, having just discovered the sudden death of her infant grandson. The news of the baby's death in the carpark at the bowls venue was kept from Millie while she competed.

Millie herself passed away in 2003, bringing the Khan sisters together in New Zealand's international pairs - and the sisters often talk to their mother on the green.

The discovery of a feather on the green was the clincher, Marina said, that the sisters would win a medal. Feathers are important because one of Millie's trademarks was that she would wish New Zealand bowls players well by saying: "Fly big bird, go for gold" and tracing the outline of a bird on their backs with a finger.

Since Millie's death, the sight of a feather has been taken by the sisters as a sign their mother is close at hand. Most times Marina and Jan have found one at or near a bowls club, they have performed well - and this week they won New Zealand's only bowls medal (they were expected to win at least four) at Melbourne, claiming bronze in the women's pairs.

"We found heaps of them [feathers]," Marina said. "They seemed to be everywhere. I had them in my pockets and in my bra. I also wore a piece of greenstone. Mum used to tuck it in her bra when she played and I have it now and do the same."

But it was the discovery of a feather on the huge State green that strongly suggested medal-time to the sisters. The green is exposed and any wind takes any light material like feathers away or they are quickly cleared by ground staff.

"It was great to win a medal," said Marina, adding that Millie's silver in Kuala Lumpur in 1998 was also the only medal won by the bowls team in those Games.

"The team were getting a bit deflated so it was good to give them a boost. It's unfortunate after we were so strong in the Oceania champs and the Tri-Nations. We played so well there that we thought we'd have a good Games. But that's sport."

Part of the problem, she said, was that using only two bowls (pairs usually have four each) meant there could be big swings in scoring.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY