Decathlon: Perfect ten

Having waited ages for another champion decathlete to succeed Simon Poelman, just like buses, two have appeared at the same time.

Jordan Vandermade and Brent Newdick have the ability to inflict the awfulness of God Defend New Zealand on future Olympic spectators.

They are already ahead of Poelman, a double Commonwealth Games medal winner, at the same age. Both have already performed well in major championships and neither is yet 20. In fact, Vandermade is not yet 18.

But potential regularly goes unfulfilled in the decathlon, particularly in New Zealand where the sponsorship and broadcast dollar rarely stretch beyond the oval ball.

Talent alone will not bring Vandermade and Newdick the glory they seek.

Their path to the top is littered with banana skins, unlike those of their rivals in Europe, who are full-time athletes, having their every whim catered for.

Vandermade and Newdick receive only limited funds from the Peter Snell Institute and sponsors.

Vandermade works at clothing retailer Amazon while Newdick has to get through a hard day of labouring before training.

Every day they feel they are slipping behind.

Exasperating them further is the big cash they see being ploughed into the bank accounts of some rugby players whose talent could be drained into a thimble.

It does make you wonder why they even bother, especially when both of them were more than handy rugby players themselves.

Vandermade explains: "Even if I was good enough to play rugby for Auckland, play for the All Blacks, I'd still never get a gold medal," he says. "The Olympics for me are too much of an event, too much of an honour.

"That is the driving force of why I do this sport. New Zealand is such a rugby-driven nation that companies like Nike and adidas only want you if you are at the top.

"It has been a real struggle for me to get clothing and other sporting equipment. They are not interested until you have made it.

"I thought fourth in the world would probably be good enough, but obviously not."

The fourth to which Vandermade refers was in the octathlon (no discus or pole vault and a 1000m race instead of 1500m) at the World Youth Championships in Canada last year. His next outing is this week in Australia at the Youth Commonwealth Games, where he will compete in the javelin and shot put.

For Newdick, the challenge is to expunge the memories of his 16th place at the World Junior Games in Italy this August.

He was cruising nicely with a top 10 finish a very real possibility when he failed to record a height in the pole vault.

It meant he finished with a points total in the low 6000s when he was hoping for the mid 7000s. He says, though, he has put in place coping strategies to prevent such a re-occurrence.

"I had a perfect warm-up. I had great training, great build-up. I didn't start too high in the pole vault. When I took off I didn't get to the bar. Maybe it was a mind blank, or it could have been nerves. I had a high expectation and everything was just under what I wanted. It was one of the first times that I had not competed well.

"I think I was frustrated because I was trying too hard but I know how to attack that now."

Coached by Brent Booker, the man who helped Doug Pirini to fourth place at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, Newdick has made enormous progress since leaving Tauranga Boys' High School in 2002 and moving to Auckland. His increased training programme has enabled him to build strength and explosive power and push his personal best out to 7427 points.

He'll need to improve that again to reach the expected qualifying mark of 7700 for the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Booker is in no doubt his protege has the ability to make the team for Melbourne, hopefully reaching the mark next year.

It seems, however, there are some concerns about Newdick's lifestyle.

Unsurprisingly for a 19-year-old, his training schedule alone doesn't satisfy all his urges.

"A lot of people have come to me and stressed the point that they worry about my life," says Newdick. "They have different theories to me, but that's all right, everyone has their own theories. I need to feel like I'm living both parts of my life otherwise I'll feel like I'm missing out."

Those who worry appear to be doing so needlessly. Newdick has a focus few athletes his age could match. His goals are specific and realistic. With more strength work and technical finesse, he has calculated he could be scoring 8500 points by the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The Les Mills-coached Vandermade would dearly love to join Newdick in Beijing and Melbourne. The former St Kentigerns pupil, who has opted out of his final year of study to concentrate on athletics, is convinced that to challenge for the medals, he will have to move offshore.

Vandermade is the youngest athlete in New Zealand to have broken 50 seconds for 400m, is throwing the javelin more than 60m and boasts a best long jump of 7.15m. These are extraordinary feats, yet they have barely caused a ripple of excitement in his homeland.

He says: "I am going to have to leave New Zealand and either go to Europe, Australia or the US. I am competing against overseas guys who are at actual decathlon schools. They are training all day in Germany. Each day when I'm doing my three-and-a-half hour's training, I'm getting further and further behind.

"Honestly, New Zealand is not offering anything."

Newdick, too, is aware a move to Europe is inevitable.

There is talk of uniting the two as training partners, to provide them with the competition, companionship and motivation they feel they can only find overseas.

But Mills, an old school stalwart, believes his athlete would be better served keeping his distance at this stage. Besides, Vandermade already has Daley Thompson as a training partner. "Les knew Daley quite well," says Vandermade. "He has told me some great stories. If I'm sitting there at training, moaning about it, Les will tell me what Daley did and it was always five times harder. Daley is one of my training partners. I have got him in my head, thinking I'm trying to beat you mate."

Beating Thompson the legend is happening only inside Vandermade's head right now.

But give it a few years and both he and Newdick could very well be doing it on the track.