Olympics: NZ gold, silver and the also-rans

By TERRY MADDAFORD

The glitz and glamour deservedly went to New Zealand's five Olympic medallists but other sports will take satisfaction from some encouraging performances.

Away from the medal-winning efforts from Sarah Ulmer, Hamish Carter, Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell, Bevan Docherty and Ben Fouhy, there were 22 other top-10 finishes.

Team sports weighed in with sixth places for our men's and women's hockey teams and eighth for the Tall Ferns. The Tall Blacks were left to reflect on what might have been after losing to eventual winners Argentina by four points and silver medallists Italy by two.

Greg Henderson (cycling points race) and the men's coxless pair of George Bridgewater and Nathan Twaddle (rowing) had the worst possible result, just missing out on medals by finishing fourth.

Swimming will take some heart from top-10 placings for Helen Norfolk and Hannah McLean, and so too will athletics, which had Valerie Adams and Beatrice Faumuina in the top eight.

Rowing, with all five crews reaching their finals, was the most successful sport and yachting had a degree of satisfaction with five top-10 finishes.

Heelan Tompkins had an encouraging seventh in three-day eventing and Nadine Stanton did well to finish sixth in shooting's double trap.

On the flip side, there were too many NZ efforts well below expectations, with some not even reaching selection standard. The NZ performances:

ARCHERY Ken Uprichard, 54th qualifying round men's individual 623pts; lost to Ming Huang Liu (Chinese Taipei) 148-145 in the round to find the last 32.

ATHLETICS

Valerie Adams, 5th qualifying round shot put, 18.79m; 8th final, 18.56m.

Michael Aish, 17th 2nd heat 5000m, 13m 50.00s (32nd overall).

Craig Barrett, 29th 50km walk, 4h 06m 48s.

Stuart Farquhar, 13th group B javelin qualifying, 74.63m (19th).

Beatrice Faumuina, 5th qualifying round discus, 64.07m; 7th final, 63.45m.

Melina Hamilton, 12th group A pole vault qualifying, 4.15m (24th).

John Henwood, did not finish 10,000m.

Liza Hunter-Galvin, 51st women's marathon, 2h 50m 23s.

Kimberley Smith, 11th 1st heat 5000m, 15m 31.80s (20th).

Jason Stewart, 5th 3rd heat 800m, 1m 46.24s.

Dale Warrender, men's marathon (had not been run when this edition went to press).

Nick Willis, 3rd 2nd heat 1500m, 3m 39.80s; 6th 2nd semifinal, 3m 41.46s.

Jonathan Wyatt, men's marathon (had not been run when this edition went to press).

BADMINTON Sara Runesten-Petersen/Dan Shirley, won 1st round mixed doubles, bt Philippe Bourret/Denyse Julian, Canada) 15-4, 15-6; lost 2nd round to Jonas Rasmussen/Rikke Olsen, Denmark) 15-14, 15-9.

BASKETBALL Men: Craig Bradshaw, Ed Book, Dillon Boucher, Pero Cameron, Mark Dickel, Paul Henare, Phill Jones, Sean Marks, Aaron Olsen, Kirk Penney, Tony Rampton, Poara Winitana, group A, lost to Italy 71-69, lost to China 69-62, beat Serbia and Montenegro 90-87, lost to Argentina 98-94, lost to Spain 88-84. Play-off for 9th-10th, lost to Australia 98-80.

Women: Megan Compain, Rebecca Cotton, Gina Farmer, Sally Farmer, Aneka Kerr, Donna Loffhagen, Angela Marino, Julie Ofsoski, Jodi Tini, Tania Tupu, Leanne Walker, Kim Wielens, group B, lost to US 99-47, bt Korea 81-73, lost to Spain 91-57, bt China 79-77, lost to Czech Republic 74-57. Quarter-finals, lost to Australia 94-55. Play-off for seventh-eighth, lost to Greece 87-83.

BOXING

Soulan Pownceby, 75kg-81kg (light-heavyweight), lost 1st round to Ihsan Yildirim Tarhan, Turkey) rsc 3rd round.

CANOEING

Ben Fouhy, 1st 1st heat K1 1000m, 3m 26.064s; 2nd final, 3m 27.413s.

Steven Ferguson, 7th 4th heat K1 500m, 2m 6.937s.

Ferguson/ Fouhy 2nd 1st heat K2 1000m, 3m 10.388s; 8th final, 3m 21.336s.

CYCLING

Heath Blackgrove, dnf road race; 33rd individual road time trial, 1h 03m 20.11s.

Julian Dean, 15th 224.4km road race, 5h 41m 56s.

Hayden Godfrey, dns 4000m individual pursuit.

Greg Henderson, 4th points race 68pts.

Melissa Holt, dnf road race.

Michelle Hyland, 54th 118.8km road race, 3h 40m 43s.

Joanne Kiesanowski, 17th 118.8km road race, 3h 25m 42s.

Kashi Leuchs, 28th 43.3km mountain bike cross country, 2h 28m 20s.

Anthony Peden, withdrawn keirin.

Robin Reid, dnf road race.

Sarah Ulmer, 1st 3000m individual pursuit, qualifying 3m 26.400s (world record); won 1st round (quarter-finals finals) bt Olga Slyusareva, Russia), 3m 27.444s (3m 36.263s); won final bt Katie Mactier, Australia, 3m 24.537s (world record) (3m 27.650s); 6th points race 8pts.

Robyn Wong, 16th 31.3km mountain bike cross country, 2h 10m 59s.

Jeremy Yates, dnf road race.

Henderson/Hayden Roulston, 7th madison, 2pts.

Godfrey, Peter Latham, Matthew Randall, Marc Ryan, 10th 4000m team pursuit qualifying round, 4m 10.820s.

Tim Gudsell, dns team pursuit.

EQUESTRIAN

Grant Cashmore (Franklins Flyte), 41st showjumping (0 faults 1st round, 12 faults 2nd round, 21 faults 3rd round; 20 faults jump-off).

Bruce Goodin (Braveheart), 67th showjumping (28 faults 1st round, 28 faults 2nd round, withdrawn).

Matthew Grayling (Revo), 15th three-day eventing, 63.20 penalties.

Louisa Hill (Gabana), 49th dressage, 62.708 points.

Dan Jocelyn (Silence), 29th three-day eventing.

Daniel Meech (Diagonal), 13th showjumping (13 faults 1st round, 6 faults 2nd round, 1 faults 3rd round; 1 fault round A jump-off, 13 faults round B jump-off).

Andrew Nicholson (Fenicio), 61st three-day eventing.

Blyth Tait (Ready Teddy), 18th three-day eventing, 73.00 penalties.

Guy Thomas (NZ Madison), 59th showjumping (16 faults 1st round, 13 faults 2nd round, 29 faults 3rd round).

Heelan Tompkins (Glengarrick), 7th three-day eventing, 52.00 penalties.

Grayling, Tait, Tompkins, 5th three-day eventing teams, 176.20 penalties.

Cashmore, Goodin, Meech, Thomas, 12th team jumping, 31 faults.

FENCING

Jessica Beer, lost 1st round eliminations women's epee to Dimitra Magkanoudaki (Greece), 15-8 (ippon).

HOCKEY

Men: Phil Burrows, Gareth Brooks, Dean Couzins, Dion Gosling, Bevan Hari, Blair Hopping, David Kosoof, Wayne McIndoe, James Nation, Umesh Parag, Mitesh Patel, Kyle Pontifex, Hayden Shaw, Darren Smith, Simon Towns, Paul Woolford, pool B, lost to Australia 4-1; lost to Netherlands 4-3; bt Argentina 3-1; bt India 2-1; bt South Africa 4-1. 5th-8th play-offs, bt South Korea 4-3; lost to Pakistan 4-2 (finished 6th).

Women: Stacey Carr, Helen Clarke, Tara Drysdale, Lizzy Igasan, Leisen Jobe, Beth Jurgeleit, Suzie Muirhead, Emily Naylor, Meredith Orr, Jaimee Provan, Niniwa Roberts-Lang, Rachel Robertson, Kayla Sharland, Rachel Sutherland, Lisa Walton, Diana Weavers, pool A, lost to China 2-0; lost to Japan 2-0; lost to Argentina 3-0; bt Spain 3-2. Play-offs 5th-8th, bt Korea 3-2 (golden goal); lost to Australia 3-0 (finished 6th).

JUDO

Rochell Stormont 52kg lost 1st round to Ioana Maria Aluas (Romania).

ROWING

George Bridgewater/Nathan Twaddle, 1st 3rd heat coxless pair oar, 6m 54.75s; 3rd 1st semifinal, 6m 24.49s; 4th final, 6m 34.24s.

Nicky Coles/Juliette Haigh, 5th 2nd heat coxless pair oar, 9m 37.53s; 2nd 1st repechage, 7m 11.00s; 6th final, 7m 23.52s.

Mahe Drysdale, Donald Leach, Carl Meyer, Eric Murray, 2nd 3rd heat coxless four, 6m 22.91s; 2nd 1st semifinal, 5m 52.95s; 5th final 6m 15.47s.

Caroline Evers-Swindell/Georgina Evers-Swindell, 1st 1st heat double sculls, 7m 25.57s; 1st final, 7m 01.79s.

Sonia Waddell, 2nd 2nd heat single sculls, 7m 36.15s; 1st 1st repechage, 7m 27.92s; 3rd 2nd semifinal, 7m 42.00s; 5th final, 7m 31.66s.

SAILING

Thomas Ashley, 10th (of 34) men's mistral (individual race results, 17, 7, 3, 18, 14, 8, 14, 18, 3, 3, 11) 98pts.

Dean Barker, 13th (of 25) Finn (5, 20, 10, 10, 7, 11, 7, 16, 26, 12, 19) 117pts.

Andrew Brown/Jamie Hunt, 26th (of 27) men's 470 (27, 25, 20, 24, 23, 23, 22, 13, 14, 10, 26) 200pts.

Linda Dickson/Shelley Hesson, 16th (of 20) women's 470 (6, 17, 13, 8, 10, 5, 17, 18, 15, 13, 14) 118pts.

Sharon Ferris, Kylie Jameson, Joanna White, 7th (of 16) women's Yngling (15, 7, 9, 16, 3, 2, 2, 9, 11, 7, 12) 77pts.

Barbara Kendall, 5th (of 26) women's Mistral (1, 9, disq, 2, disq, 5, 5, 3, 1, 1, 4) 58pts.

Sarah Macky, 8th (of 25) Europe (14, 5, 17, 4, 8, 19, 4, 20, 6, 4, 10) 91pts.

Hamish Pepper, 7th (of 42) Laser (24, 2, 21, 9, 26, 11, 9, 5, 13, 3, 21) 108.3pts.

SHOOTING

Nadine Stanton, 6th women's double trap, 137pts.

Ryan Taylor, 36th qualifying round 50m smallbore rifle prone, 589pts.

SWIMMING

Moss Burmester, 5th 5th heat 200m butterfly, 1m 58.13s; 6th 1st semifinal 200m butterfly, 1m 58.09s (12th overall); 2nd 2nd heat 400m freestyle, 3m 57.29s (28th); 4th 2nd heat 1500m freestyle, 15m 56.42s (28th).

Annabelle Carey, 8th 3rd heat 100m breaststroke, 1m 13.12s (35th).

Elizabeth Coster, 3rd 2nd heat 100m butterfly, 1m 00.61s (23rd).

Alison Fitch, 2nd 5th heat 50m freestyle, 26.56s (34th); 3rd 4th heat 100m freestyle, 56.29s (21st); 5th 3rd heat 200m freestyle, 2m 03.58s (29th).

Cameron Gibson, 6th 4th heat 100m backstroke 56.40s (22nd); 7th 4th heat 200m backstroke, 2m 02.65s (20th); 7th 5th heat 100m freestyle, 51.56s (43rd).

Helen Norfolk, 4th 2nd heat 400m individual medley, 4m 45.21s (9th); 7th 4th heat 200m individual medley, 2m 27.27s; 8th 1st semifinal 200m individual medley, 2m 17.41s (16th).

Dean Kent, 1st 1st heat 400m individual medley, 4m 18.55s (13th); 3rd 6th heat 200m indiviudual medley, 2m 01.31s; 7th 2nd semifinal 200m individual medley, 2m 01.94s (14th).

Ben Labowitch, 3rd 3rd heat 100m breaststroke, 1m 03.99s (36th); 7th 2nd heat 200m breaststroke, 2m 19.25s (39th).

Rebecca Linton, 6th 2nd heat 400m freestyle, 4m 21.58s (31st); 7th 3rd heat 800m freestyle, 9m 02.41s (24th).

Hannah McLean, 7th 5th heat 100m backstroke, 1m 03.09s (22nd); 3rd 4th heat 200m backstroke, 2m 13.33s; 7th 2nd semifinal 200m backstroke, 2m 12.87s (10th).

Corney Swanepoel, 7th 7th heat 100m butterfly, 53.07s; 8th 2nd semifinal 100m butterfly 52.99s (13th).

Norfolk, Fitch, Linton, Nathalie Bernard 7th 1st heat 4x200m freestyle relay, 8m 14.76s (13th).

McLean, Coster, Carey, Fitch, 6th 1st heat 4x100m medley relay, 4m 10.37s (13th).

Scott Talbot-Cameron, Labowitch, Swanepeol, Gibson 7th 2nd heat 4x100m medley relay, 3m 42.74s (12th).

TABLE TENNIS

Li Chunli, singles, bye 1st round; 2nd round bt Tawny Banh (US) 11-8, 12-10, 11-9, 8-11, 11-9; 3rd round lost to Yiang Zhang (China) 11-8, 12-10, 11-5, 11-7.

Li/Karen Li, women's doubles, bye 1st round; 2nd round bt Jian Fang Lay/Miao Miao (Australia) 12-10, 8-11, 6-11, 11-5, 11-2; 3rd round bt Nicole Struse/Elke Wosik (Germany) 11-6, 11-7, 11-7, 10-12, 11-6; 4th round lost to K. Hyang Mi/K. Hyong Hui (Nth Korea) 11-8, 11-13, 11-6, 11-13, 11-5, 11-4.

TAEKWONDO

Verina Wihongi, women's under-67kg, lost 1st round to Elisavet Mystakidou (Greece) 4-0; lost repechage to Heidy Juarez (Guatemala) 4-1.

TRIATHLON

Hamish Carter 1st (1.5km swim 18m 19s 33rd, 40km cycle 1h 00m 44s 1st, 10km run 32m 04s 4th), 1h 51m 07.73s.

Bevan Docherty 2nd (1.5km swim 18m 13s 17th, 40km cycle 1h 00m 51s 4th, 10km run 32m 11s 5th), 1h 51m 15.60s.

Nathan Richmond 33rd (1.5km swim 18m 04s th, 40km cycle 1h 02m 51s 23rd, 10km run 37m 06s 41st), 1h 58m 01.94s.

Samantha Warriner 18th (1.5km swim 19m 42s 22nd, 40km cycle 1h 10m 45s 19th, 10km run 38m 15s 20th), 2h 08m 42.07s.