Terry Maddaford: Millions invested for little reward

COMMENT

Don Cowie got it right. In accepting that the sailing team he managed in Athens had come up short, he echoed a view held by many.

Cowie might have been at odds with some at Yachting New Zealand, who apparently felt five top-10 finishes in the eight classes New Zealand sailors contested had been a half-decent effort.

So what? A worthwhile return for the $3.2 million invested in their sport over a 30-month period? Hardly.

A nil return in the medal stakes does not stack up when compared with the triathlon competitors, who received only a third as much as yachting, or even cycling and rowing, who had around half the amount that the sailors picked up in Sport and Recreation New Zealand handouts.

Canoeing got by with just over $500,000.

Cowie was well positioned to comment.

He was part of the highly successful New Zealand sailing team in Barcelona 12 years ago.

They returned with one gold (board sailor Barbara Kendall), two silvers (Cowie/Rod Davis in the Star class and Jan Shearer/Leslie Egnot in the 470s) and a bronze (Craig Monk in the Finns).

They also had three fourth placings, a seventh and a worst of eighth (in the highly competitive Solings).

The conditions they faced in Spain were not too different from those 12 years on in Greece, despite our yachting team's protestations that conditions there would be against them.

Kendall returned from Atlanta in 1996 with the only medal - silver in the boards. Aaron McIntosh was fourth (also in the boards). A fifth in the Star class and 10th in the Lasers were the only other top-10 efforts.

In Sydney four years ago the return was better, but still not great.

Kendall and McIntosh won the only medals - bronze on the Mistral boards. There were two fifths, a seventh, an eighth and a ninth and two finishes outside the top 10.

Looking deeper into the efforts by our 12 yachtsmen and women on the waters out from the Olympic Sailing Centre at Agios Kosmas, only Barbara Kendall won a race. However, her three victories were tempered by two over-the-start-line disqualifications.

There were only seven other top- three finishes in the 88 races contested by New Zealand crews.

This was a yachting contingent under seige from the outset.

In going away from their largely established first-past-the-post selection criteria, Yachting New Zealand left itself open to criticism.

Trips to and from the Sports Disputes Tribunal did nothing for its image and disrupted Olympic preparation.

The wrangles also took $100,000 of "Olympic preparation" money out of circulation.

Those close to yachting also bemoaned the huge dollars that have gone to the America's Cup.

Granted, it is an expensive sport, with major regattas sailed on the other side of the world.

But for a sport which holds second place behind athletics on the all-time medal count, the report card will read "can, and must, do better".