Hockey: Golden touch yet to come: Borren

MILTON KEYNES - New Zealand women's hockey coach Jan Borren does not harbour unrealistic dreams about the side bringing home gold from Sydney.

The women's team fly home tonight with the relief and excitement of having qualified for Sydney, confirming their place among the top six in world hockey, and reaching the final of the Olympic qualifying tournament.

They play Britain in the final in Milton Keynes this morning and another win would be a confidence-booster for the Kiwis, who have beaten Britain 1-0, Russia 8-0 and world No 3 Germany 2-1 in this event.

But Borren, who was a member of the New Zealand men's side in the 1968 and 1972 Olympics but had retired when many of his old team-mates won gold at Montreal in 1976, does not believe this side is good enough yet to win gold or silver in Sydney.

"Australia and Holland are out of our reach at the moment and Germany are a very skilful team and we need to make progress to beat them consistently," said Borren.

He knows that getting the women to Sydney was only the first hurdle - the next aim is for them to play at the highest level throughout the Olympics.

"I don't particularly have a dream," he said. "I just create an environment to assist the players to fulfil their ambitions and their dreams.

"I am not a career coach. I do it as a hobby to help the players.

"My job was to get them to Sydney. Now I want to get them in a position to have a chance to win a medal, but it's too difficult to predict what could happen in the Olympics.

"The first huge step for this team was to start to believe it belonged in the top group of world hockey."

In the past 12 months New Zealand have cemented their world No 5 ranking with 12 wins, two draws and a loss to teams ranked below them.

New Zealand are closing on world No 4 Argentina, who are traditionally not as formidable away from home, but face challenges from Britain and South Africa, who are ranked just behind them.

Borren has demanded the players take a bigger step forward in their performance before Sydney.

Five who have improved in this qualifying tournament are wingers Kylie Foy and Mandy Smith and the back three, Rachel Petrie, Sandy Bennett and goalie Helen Clarke.

Suzie Pearce, Tina Bell-Kake and captain Anna Lawrence have put in a lot of hard work and New Zealand will be medal contenders in Sydney if they are on top of their games.

Lawrence, aged 28 and a veteran of 128 games for New Zealand, is excited about competing in Sydney because it will give the team a chance to bury the ghost of their last placing at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.

"This tournament is the first I have been involved in where we have done so well by beating sides like Britain and Germany in succession," she said.

"We have got the consistency right in the last three days and it feels great."

- NZPA