Focus Sport's Cheree Kinnear wraps the news from day one, New Zealand gets it first shot at the podium and Lewis Clareburt gives an insight to life in the village. Video / NZ Herald
In the first of his daily columns during the Olympics, seasoned sports journalist and renowned broadcaster Phil Gifford singles out five events to watch.
Rowing has brought us some of our greatest Olympic moments and in Tokyo, they're doing it again. The Sea Forest Waterway, specially built for the Gamesin Tokyo Bay, is shaping up to provide another golden chapter for the sport, which dates back to the men's coxed four winning in Mexico City in 1968. Rowing leads my five to watch for Saturday, July 24.
1. The naturals
Kerri Gowler and Grace Prendergast. Rowing, women's pair, heats (12.40pm)
The pairing of Grace Prendergast (L) and Kerri Gowler may be New Zealand's best chance of rowing gold in Tokyo. Photo / Photosport
"I think pairs either work or they don't," says Prendergast, "and we had a natural ability to row with each other".
They're the world champions, and in 2019 were named the world's best female rowing crew. And rowing keeps up the pressure with the men's and women's eights later in the afternoon.
Clareburt was offered a swag of scholarships to US universities, but decided that if Loader "could win a gold medal training in his backyard, so can I."
Loader's backyard was Dunedin, where he was lucky enough to be tutored by Duncan Laing whose endless kindness was reflected in how much he enjoyed teaching preschoolers to swim.
Clareburt's backyard is Wellington, where he trains with coach Gary Hollywood, using the public lanes of the Freyberg Pool in Oriental Bay.
There's one more major connection to Loader. In 1997, when Irish-born Hollywood met Laing at a coaches' conference, without any preamble, Laing handed over decades of notes and training programmes.
"People like Duncan Laing," says Hollywood, "they didn't need science, they felt it, they understood the athlete."
Live updates: nzherald.co.nz.
Live commentary: Newstalk ZB.
Watch live: Sky 54, TVNZ.
3. The biggest hearts
George Bennett, Patrick Bevin. Men's cycling road race (2pm)
George Bennett. Photo / Photosport
Road cyclists, a two-time Olympic team doctor once told me, are the toughest people in sport.
Coach Warwick Dalton described our only Olympic road race medal winner, the slightly built 1972 hero Bruce Biddle, as "basically a rib cage with a massive heart beating away inside it".
The men's Black Sticks get their Olympic campaign underway today. Photo / Photosport
In 1976 New Zealand's men won hockey gold in Montreal. Goalkeeper Trevor Manning played the game out with a shattered kneecap, and they arrived home to a hero's welcome, where captain Tony Ineson quietly noted, "I'm sorry, there's no point talking to me. I haven't been sober for 72 hours".
The current team are outsiders, but an optimist might recall that before the '76 side went to Canada few expected better than the ninth place they'd managed in Mexico in '68.
Live updates: nzherald.co.nz.
Watch live: Sky 54, TVNZ.
5. Breaking through
Misha Koudinov. Men's artistic gymnastics, qualifying (1pm)
Misha Koudinov competes during the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014. Photo / Photosport
At 30, Koudinov is in the best form of his career, going to Tokyo as the current Oceania champion.
In a sport usually dominated by younger competitors, the Mt Roskill gym manager completes daring routines that he says, when he tried them as a teenager, almost killed him.
