Commonwealth Games: Women's turn after glory days of men

MELBOURNE - Remember 1984. Not George Orwell, but the Los Angeles Olympics. New Zealand had eight reasons to celebrate as athletes stood atop the dais in the country's best return of any Olympics.

And those eight were linked by two elements: all the winners were men and all did their stuff plonked on their backsides.

They were the Games when New Zealand exploded on the waters of Lake Casitas - between them paddlers Ian Ferguson, Paul McDonald, Grant Bramwell and Alan Thompson were responsible for four golds.

Then there was Russell Coutts winning the Finn despite painful boils you know where, and Chris Timms and Rex Sellers doing the same in theTornado.

Ace horseman Mark Todd was aboard Charisma when he won the three-day event for the first time, and the coxless four of Shane O'Brien, Les O'Connell, Conrad Robertson and Keith Trask snatched an unexpected gold at the rowing regatta.

Glory days. By contrast, the best performance by a woman in Los Angeles was marathon runner Lorraine Moller's fifth place.

How things change. A glance down the list of New Zealanders competing in Melbourne this month suggests many of the country's best gold-medal hopes will be women.

Consider the obvious candidates for a start:

* Olympic and world 3000m individual pursuit champion Sarah Ulmer has switched to the road and despite the need to adjust to different gear set-ups, she's a strong gold chance in the individual time trial and the road race.

* Valerie Vili is the world's No 2 ranked shot putter and first in the Commonwealth, and waltzed to a win in a warmup meet in Melbourne on Thursday night.

* Beatrice Faumuina, a former world champion, is chasing a third straight Commonwealth discus title from the position of No 1 ranking.

* Nadine Stanton, who won gold and silver at Manchester four years ago, is strongly placed for more gold in the trap.

* And the Silver Ferns, who are in a two-horse race for the netball crown, and must be favoured to maintain the edge they've established over the Australians since winning the world title in Jamaica two years ago.

Now throw in a host of others who will begin their event with real prospects of victory, including:

* Squash pair Shelley Kitchen and Tamsyn Leevey, who are the world doubles champions; teammates Lara Heta and Louise Crome who won silver in last year's worlds and bronze this year.

* Well-credentialled bowling sisters Jan and Marina Khan and the triple led by three-time world champion Sharon Sims.

* And backstroker Hannah McLean, who made two world championship finals last year and has the capability of putting a wrinkle in Australia's plans for aquatic domination at the Games.

Then there are others who might push the medal numbers up unexpectedly, such as former world 50m breaststroke recordholder Zoe Baker and world mountain running champion Kate McIlroy.

McIlroy, the Halberg Award sportswoman of the year, is contesting the 3000m steeplechase and warmed up with an impressive third placing in a 3000m flat race here on Thursday night.

"Without putting too much pressure on her, she is a definite medal contender," Athletics New Zealand performance manager Eric Hollingsworth said yesterday.

Nick Hill, chief executive of the Government sports funding agency Sparc, is in Melbourne and will be watching the women's performances with interest.

Sparc does not break down its funding on a gender basis, but Hill appreciates the importance of what has gone before.

"Following the Athens Olympics, the impact [gold medallists] Sarah Ulmer and Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell had on the New Zealand psyche was enormous," he said yesterday.

Young women, understandably, took note of their triumphs and a glance at the numbers of secondary schoolgirls involved in rowing, especially, gives weight to the importance of having someone who can offer tangible inspiration. Words are all well and good, but deeds count.

Hill is heartened by the numbers of women in sport, but one aspect bugs him: the lack of women in administrative positions.

"In participation numbers, we are as good if not better than the rest of the world," he said.

"Our issue is with governance and leadership roles. We need to be more aggressive in persuading women to put themselves forward."

But for now, the focus is on medals, and there's a good chance that by the end of this month New Zealand's up-and-coming women athletes will have a decent range of successes from which to draw inspiration.