Todd's bronze breaks medal drought

It wasn't a golden goodbye from international eventing for Mark Todd, but a bronze medal was gratefully received by rider and a nation yearning to get on the Sydney Olympic medal table.

With Todd having ridden through a sex and drug scandal before arriving in Sydney, then seeing five of his New Zealand team-mates' horses falling injured, some of the lustre had been taken from Todd's international swansong.

The gold medallist from the 1984 and 1988 Olympics battled through the external pressures, giving the world one last look at why he was named rider of the century and giving New Zealand eventing something to show for its ill-fated Sydney campaign.

The two riders who finished ahead of Todd on Friday - American David O'Connor and Australian team triple gold medallist Andrew Hoy - both paid tribute to the New Zealander.

O'Connor, who helped groom for Todd at his first Badminton win in 1980, said there was no question he was the best rider of the 20th century.

``It's the end of an era and the era's kind of drawn to a close and the sport is going to not be the better for it,'' O'Connor said.

``You can teach technique, but you can't teach art. And Mark's an artist.''

It was touch and go on Friday morning whether Todd would be allowed to complete the event as the vets took a long, hard look at Eyespy in the final inspection before the show jumping.

Eyespy had lost a shoe across country off the same hoof he had a stone bruise last week, but he was passed fit and didn't remove any rails in the show jumping.

However, three time penalties were enough to see Hoy and Swizzle In overtake Todd for silver. Greek rider Heidi Antikatzidis, second overnight on Michaelmas, dropped two rails and our of the medals. O'Connor and Custom Made dropped a rail but still won with a rail in hand.

``It's been the most incredibly stressful week,'' Todd said, expressing his relief that he had managed to salvage something for the New Zealand team to celebrate.

Another New Zealand medal was guaranteed on Sydney Harbour when Barbara Kendall - gold and silver medallist at the last two Olympics - recorded fifth and first places in her two boardsailing races today.

With one race to go on Sunday, she cannot be caught by anyone below her third overall place.

Kendall in turn cannot catch light air specialist Amelie Lux, who has been revelling in the conditions and is still leading the series by finishing second twice today.

The Aucklander can push Alessandra Sensini out of the silver medal position, but the Italian is also thriving in the light winds.

Barring his boat sinking or other major mishap, Rob Waddell seems assured of a medal in Saturday's single sculls final. It looks like being a duel between him and defending champion Xeno Mueller, with Waddell starting favourite.

If his wife Sonia, in the women's single sculls, and the New Zealand coxless four go on the victory rostrum at Penrith Lake tomorrow it will be a bonus.

New Zealand rowers have been out of the Olympic medals since Seoul in 1988 when single sculler Eric Verdonk, the women's coxless pair and men's coxless four all collected bronzes.

Toni Hodgkinson got New Zealand's track and field campaign off to a good start, when qualifying fourth fastest for the 800m semifinals. She was also fourth in her star-studded heat, clocking 1 minute 59.37 seconds.

Vivienne Rignall at last gave the New Zealand swim team something to cheer about when qualifying equal seventh fastest in the 50m sprint, slicing 0.35 seconds off her New Zealand record when clocking 25.52 seconds.

New Zealand's softballers, whose gutsy Olympic tournament start is now a fading memory, were outbatted six hits to one by defending champions United States who won 2-0.

- NZPA