Sparc defend their medal target

As the reality of a failed Commonwealth Games campaign sets in, Sparc bosses have defended their decision to publicly set a medal target.

The Government sports funding agency is prepared for the backlash following the New Zealand team's failure to come close to the target set by their paymasters.

Sparc told its athletes to bring home 46 medals and said hard questions must be asked about its systems if they fell short of 40.

As the Games draw to a close tonight, it is obvious New Zealand will fall well short of those targets.

Asked whether Sparc was disappointed, chief executive Nick Hill was unequivocal.

"Yes we are," he said bluntly. "There's going to be debate around the whole concept of medal targets but we need to decide whether we're in the business of winning golds, or whether we're just happy with people performing well and getting personal bests.

"I believe you need that tension in the system that setting targets provides," Hill said, pointing to the fact that Australia has been very up front about its targets and expectations.

In Sparc's debriefs with all the sports following the Games there will be as much debate about how they come up with appropriate medal targets as well as how to reach them.

Sparc high performance chief Marty Toomey arrived at the figure in consultation with the head of each sport and NZ Olympic Committee chef de mission Dave Currie.

"I still think it was an entirely realistic target," Toomey told the Herald on Sunday.

The big 'misses' have been shooting and bowls, who were expected to get 12 and four medals respectively but came up with just five and one. Hockey was expected to bring home two medals but drew a blank.

Few sports have exceeded expectations but triathlon (three medals as opposed to one predicted) and swimming (six instead of five) were notable exceptions.

While some sports, particularly shooting, have said the expectation weighed heavily during the Games, both Hill and Toomey remain adamant 46 was not setting the bar too high. In fact there are some within the organisation that believe the figure was conservative.

"If you look at why we failed, three things stand out," Hill said. "The bar has been lifted and while we haven't slipped back the others have gone ahead quicker. There's a question around the shooting because clearly we haven't delivered. And there's a breadth and depth issue. We tend to have events where we've one dominant athlete, whereas Australia, England and even the Scots have two or three."

Sparc is part way through a review of its high performance systems but Hill said Melbourne wouldn't be a catalyst for radical change.

Nor would there be a case for punitive action against sports that have flopped.

Shooting, bowls, cycling (which could reach its target of six with a couple of medals on the road today) and hockey have all received massive cash injections in the past two years.

For $3.5 million since the Athens Olympics, cycling has returned very little. Even the medals it has won on the track were disappointing results, something its high performance manager Mike Flynn has acknowledged.

Shooting received a little less than $2m, while bowls received received $1.14m. Swimming, the Games success story, was working off an investment of $2.56m.

"The question we have to ask is what does it take to win in the future," Hill said. "Is it more money? Is it changing fundamentally flawed programmes? We can't look at this with a view to punishment for failure."

Toomey said it was important to note that not all the money granted was for the Games campaign, using the example of the European base BikeNZ has set up in France, the dividends of which are expected in 2008.

While sifting through the gloom of the past two weeks, both Hill and Toomey can see positives, particularly in the blue riband sports of swimming and track and field.


* A further $200m of public money has been promised for the training of elite athletes, in the hope of propelling Britain to fourth place in the medals table at the 2012 London Olympics.
- HERALD ON SUNDAY