Kiwis hoping to team up and win gold

The former world champion men's sprint team may be the best chance of breaking a gold duck. Photo / Getty

If New Zealand's Olympic team is to be aspirational at Rio next year, here's a suggestion: win a gold medal in a teams event involving three or more people.

New Zealanders are per capita machines in sports involving individuals or pairs. Extend the personnel boundaries and the results waver.

The gold hiatus extends to Los Angeles in 1984 when Keith Trask, Conrad Robertson, Shane O'Brien and Les O'Connell won rowing's coxless four and Alan Thompson, Ian Ferguson, Paul MacDonald and Grant Bramwell repeated the dose in canoeing's K4 1000m.

The 1992 equestrian team came closest, taking silver at Barcelona. The equestrian teams (1988, 1996 and 2012), team pursuit cyclists (2008, 2012) and rowing coxed four (1988) earned bronze.

So where will these revered metal discs come from? The credentials of six candidates stand out from the rest:

1. Cycling - team sprint

Ethan Mitchell, Sam Webster and Eddie Dawkins are likely to get the nod as Cycling New Zealand's priority track medal event. They have pedigree as former world champions. They defended their title this year until disqualification intervened for an overlapping of wheels in the final.

2. Cycling - team pursuit

In the sport's endurance arm, four riders are guaranteed selection for the defending world champions. The team will likely be selected from Dylan Kennett, Piet Bulling, Alex Frame, Regan Gough and Marc Ryan, who won in France, along with Hayden Roulston, Cam Karwowski and Nick Kergozou. Aaron Gate seems favourite to take the omnium spot and may be asked to work as back-up.

3. Sevens - women

The sevens' sisters won all before them to take the overall title but stumbled in the final two rounds last season. A 33-7 defeat to Russia and a quarter-final loss to Australia at Dubai to start this season means Sean Horan's side must take careful stock.

4. Sevens - men

As other countries invest significant budgets in a new Olympic sport, the pressure is impacting on New Zealand. Inaugural losses to the United States (twice at Dubai), Canada and Argentina (at Cape Town) delivered a poor start this season. But coach Gordon Tietjens is wily and his access to 15s players such as Sonny Bill Williams and Liam Messam might revitalise a side that came third last season.

5. Equestrian - team eventing

Germany and Britain rank as favourites, and Andrew Nicholson's broken neck set back New Zealand hopes. Still, a high performance squad featuring two Olympic champions (Sir Mark Todd and Blyth Tait), three in the world top 20 (Todd, Tim and Jonelle Price) and riders who featured in each of the six four-star podiums this year (Tim and Jonelle Price, Jock Paget, Clarke Johnstone) means fervent competition for the four Rio places.

6. Rowing - women's eight

Until this year, a New Zealand women's eight had never qualified for the Olympics, let alone earned a world championship medal (silver) in the sport's blue riband discipline. The fact they'll be joined by the men shows how far the taxpayer-funded centralised programme has come after the board agreed to invest in both crews, through to Tokyo 2020.