New Zealand must build depth, Games debrief says

Moss Burmester won New Zealand's first gold at the Games. Picture / John Borren

New Zealand must work to reduce dependence on a few star athletes, a Sport and Recreation (Sparc) review of the Melbourne Commonwealth Games says.

Sparc had predicted 46 medals at the March showpiece, but New Zealand won only 31 - its poorest haul since Brisbane in 1982.

Elite athletes such as injured cyclists Sarah Ulmer and Greg Henderson failed to reach the Games podium, as did former world discus champion Beatrice Faumuina.

Sparc chief executive Nick Hill said a two-month debrief found New Zealand lacked the depth of countries like Australia and England.

When the likes of Ulmer and key hockey players went down "there's no one behind them", he said.

"Have we really got that talent coming through, have we got sufficient resources going into that next tier?

"If you look at the Australians, there is fantastic depth in those sports that they are really concentrating on."

New Zealand had to be clear on which sports could produce medals, and ensure they had programmes that ensured depth of performance was produced, he said.

"Ultimately we'll find it's harder and harder to win in sports where we are just part-time, and that's the lesson from Melbourne."

The inquiry would guide funding support for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The issue was how money was spent, rather than needing more money, he said.

New Zealand won six gold medals; 12 silver, and 13 bronze. There were 32 fourth places, and 20 fifths.

Minister for Sport Trevor Mallard said in March he expected the Sparc review to look at why New Zealand had not done better.

"Frankly we had far too many fourths," he said.

Sparc was over-optimistic in its prediction of 46 medals, he said.

Hill said Sparc would not stop predicting medal hauls.

"Medal targets are absolutely crucial, and we're not going to move away from those, and we shouldn't."

Recommendations

The report recommended Sparc:

* Target the sports that can win medals to increase their depth of talent and their international competitiveness;

* Target a high proportion of its high performance investment at sports with the ability to deliver multiple Commonwealth and Olympic medals;

* Only support the high performance programmes that have a professional structure to support their world class athletes.

Sparc said it would review its high performance coaching initiatives to ensure the system was extracting maximum value from its investment.

It will also consider developing and implementing an accelerated development programme for high performance coaches.

"New Zealand cannot compete on the basis of size and funding," the report said.

"It is futile to try to emulate the seemingly endless resources of the larger major sporting countries.

"We do not have the resources to outspend our rivals, but we certainly can be smarter, more nimble and more innovative."

- NZPA