Terry Maddaford: Fearing a real Greek tragedy

COMMENT

Come this day a year on, the Athens Olympics will be history. The medals will have been handed out, the competitors moved on.

It will be the time to reflect on - we must always hope - a job well done.

But for New Zealand it could be another case of "could have done better."

If results at the just-completed world championships in three major sports are indicative, pickings in Greece could be lean.

Rower Rob Waddell brought this country's solitary gold medal home from Sydney in 2000. The only other medals were bronze for boardsailors Aaron McIntosh and Barbara Kendall, and equestrian Mark Todd.

A little under 12 months from the 2004 Olympics, rowing again holds early hopes of similar success, this time for Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell.

Other Kiwi crews, including Sonia Waddell and perhaps her husband, could join them in finals.

Elsewhere, the hopes are not as strong.

Kendall is back and gunning for the chance to bolster her already impressive Olympic record, McIntosh has switched classes and Todd has moved on.

Of the three sports in recent international action, cycling holds the highest hopes.

Swimming and track and field have, sadly, some ground to make up.

The small New Zealand cycling team in Stuttgart, Germany, did well enough, with Hayden Roulston and Greg Henderson claiming silver in the tough 50km madison.

Sarah Ulmer was fourth in her specialist 3000m individual pursuit, the same place as her ride in Sydney, and Henderson fifth in the 15km scratch race.

The young pursuit team of Peter Latham, Roulston, Marc Ryan and Heath Blackgrove did well enough to claim the sixth fastest time.

Athens may, however, come too soon for them. The 2006 Commonwealth Games are perhaps a better bet.

The concerns for the cyclists is in not managing a top-10 finish in the individual pursuit or even having a starter in the kilometre time trial.

The swimming team in Barcelona pinned their hopes on the women's 4x200m freestyle relay. That came sadly unstuck when they were disqualified for a premature start. But they will get another chance.

In individual events the picture was not pretty. No New Zealand swimmer reached a final (top eight). The best effort came from Hannah McLean with her national record of 1m 02.15s in the 100m backstroke.

But even that time was only good enough for eighth after the heats. Her semifinal of 1m 02.45s ranked her 12th.

Despite the high hopes, there were only five other top-20 swims at the championships. Even Cameron Gibson's personal best (and then national record) of 56.22s in the 100m backstroke ranked only 28th.

Similar hopes were held for New Zealand athletes at the just-completed world championships in Paris. Again, they came up short.

Only Valerie Adams' credible fifth place in the shot put behind two Russians and athletes from the Ukraine and Belarus gave any encouragement for a sport so desperately short of stars.

James Dolphin ran a personal-best of 20.69s in the 200m, but failed to get beyond the second round.

Dolphin, Dallas Roberts, Chris Donaldson and Donald McDonald ran a national record, 39.25s, in the 4x100m relay, but even that could not get them a second run.

The rest, sadly, failed to raise a yelp.

Sportsmen and women who meet qualifying standards earn the right to compete at such championships. Too often they fail to meet even those standards on the big stage.

This, again, raises a question. Are these qualifying standards too soft and, in the end, encouraging mediocrity?

We must hope not.