Golden girl Ulmer scoops the Halbergs

Sarah Ulmer picked up yet another accolade when the Olympic gold medallist and world champion track cyclist scooped the 2004 Halberg Award and sportswoman of the year title in Auckland last night.
Ulmer was a leading candidate for the Halberg award after her 3000m individual pursuit gold medal in Athens, and World Cycling Championship success in Melbourne last year.
Not surprisingly gold medal Olympians dominated the categories with triathlete Hamish Carter claiming the sportsman award, and rowing twins Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell the sports team of the year award.
Carter, former world triathlon No.1, produced a fairytale finish in Athens to win gold, four years after a poor performance at the Sydney Olympics when he was favoured for a medal.
The Evers-Swindell twins ? Halberg Award winners in 2001 ? continued their dominance of the women's double scull with gold in Greece.
They remain unbeaten in the event since the 2001 world rowing championships.
Their coach Dick Tonks capped the night by winning the coach of the year.
Ulmer, gracious and elegant as she was on the winner's dais at Athens, thanked her supporters when accepting her award, saying: "All of you had way more confidence in me than I had in myself for my whole career. I'm just glad that last year some of it rubbed off on me."
She thanked her sponsors "in the cheap seats", her family, and her boyfriend and coach, Brendon Cameron, with whom she "planned the attack".
Ulmer said she was "so proud" to call herself a New Zealander.
"The highlight for the Olympics for me wasn't when I was handed a medal by a Greek guy I didn't know, it was the New Zealand team that came to watch me at the velodrome and right before I went to accept my medal the team members there gave me a haka. Being saluted in a Kiwi way like that when you're a squillion miles away from home ... is the most powerful feeling in the world."
Carter accepted the sportsman award from childhood hero John Walker, who announced the winner by saying he had always admired the recipient's tenacity, will and guts.
The compliment was returned.
"Wow, this is a massive honour," said Carter, accepting the award. "When I was an eight-year-old I saw John Walker win his gold medal. When I was eight years old I had the dream of doing what John had done and here I am today. I couldn't quite run fast enough so I chucked a swim and a bike in there and I managed to do it."
Georgina Evers-Swindell paid tribute to coach Dick Tonks when the twins accepted their award: "What can I say? The guy is a legend."
They also thanked their family for their support, along with sponsors and New Zealand Rowing.
"Thank you so much. This is very, very cool," she said.
"As Sarah said, Athens does seem like a million years ago but being here tonight is a fantastic way to relive some of those memories."
Ulmer's stunning year began in May at the World Cycling Championships where she crushed Australia's Katie Mactier in the 3000m individual pursuit in a world record time of 3 minutes 30.604 seconds.
Three months later at Athens, Ulmer, 28, set aside the anguish of missing a bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics with what is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest performances by any athlete at the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Entering the competition as favourite, she responded with the fastest qualifying time by over 3sec and a new world record of 3min 26.400sec.
In the quarterfinals she was again the fastest of the eight and in the final Ulmer blitzed Mactier, again, by over three seconds with another world record time of 3min 24.537sec.
Last year she also lowered the world record for the 3000m individual pursuit by over 6sec.
For the sportswoman of the year, Ulmer beat surf lifesaver Rachael Anderson, world champion downhill mountain biker Vanessa Quin and world individual aerobic champion Angela McMillan.
In the men's category Athens triathlon silver medallist Bevan Docherty, kayaker Ben Fouhy who also claimed silver in the K1000, and cyclist Greg Henderson were also nominated.
For the teams' title the Evers-Swindell with heldchallenges from the Black Sox who won their third consecutive world softball title in Christchurch last February, the bowls pair of Sharon Sims and Jo Edwards who won the 2004 World Bowls Championships, and the New Zealand rugby sevens side who won the International Rugby Board World Sevens Series during 2004, for the fifth consecutive year.
l Inducted into the New Zealand Sport's Hall of Fame last night were the nine-strong members of the New Zealand men's cross country team, who won the 1975 world championships ? John Walker, Euan Robertson, Dave Sirl, John Dixon, John Sheddan, Bryan Rose, Jack Foster, Kevin Ryan and Dick Quax.
Danyon Loader, the 1996 double Olympic swimming gold medal winner in the 200 and 400m freestyle was also inducted. ? NZPA