Athletics: Brilliant Brent makes point

They are best of mates in the toughest of tests. And when 20-year-old Brent Newdick qualified in the decathlon for the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, he did so with the respect of two other decathletes who may also be headed for higher honours.

Newdick produced a series of brilliant performances at the New Zealand championships yesterday and, if he can equal or better his 7682 points score from the last two days' competition, he should finish in the top four in Melbourne.

The other big winner yesterday was 18-year-old Jordan Vandermade, who scored an impressive 7405 points and qualified for the world junior (under-20) championships in Beijing later this year. Vandermade, who finished fourth in the world octathlon championship (an abbreviated version of the decathlon) in Canada three years ago, has a good chance of winning a medal in Beijing and may, with more time, yet be New Zealand's strongest decathlete for many years.

Otago's Peter Cox was another aiming for the Melbourne Games but tweaked a hamstring in yesterday's sixth decathlon event, the 110m hurdles. He may compete in the Australian championships in Sydney next weekend if he recovers in time.

Newdick was understandably delighted at finishing so well. "My aim going into this decathlon was to qualify for the Games," Newdick said. "The qualifying standard was 7500 points so I'm thrilled to have achieved that.

"Then when I was going so well in the second day's events, I started looking at scoring between 7600 and 7700 points which would give me a high qualifying ranking going into the Games.

"I managed that although not quite making 7700 points."

The striking feature of this year's decathlon was the depth of competition between the three big guns - all mates off the track but, when the gun goes for the first event, the fiercest of competitors.

All three are relative novices but all have a great future in the event and could be representing New Zealand at the Beijing Olympics two years from now.

Cox, a fifth-year medical student at Otago University, was a natural in several sports during his high-school days. He represented Otago in the junior grades in cricket, soccer, basketball and athletics.

While a student at Otago Boys High School he won New Zealand secondary schools titles in the 110m hurdles, high jump and long jump.

Newdick is a product of Tauranga Boys College. He was in his school's first rugby XV and excelled in volleyball, touch and athletics.

Meanwhile 18-year-old Jordan Vandermade is possibly the most talented of the three. Only one year out of high school, Vandermade represented New Zealand against Australia as a 12- and 13-year-old in tennis, was an Auckland rugby representative at under-14 and under-15 level, and won a host of titles in children's athletics and during his years at Auckland's St Kentigern College.

His father Tony was one of Auckland and North Harbour's top rugby halfbacks and played for North Harbour under Buck Shelford.

Newdick's father Guy was a loose forward with Auckland's Pakuranga senior side, while his mother Rose represented Bay of Plenty at squash.

Cox's father still competes in multi-events sports, including the South Island's Coast to Coast event.

Newdick loves the whole atmosphere that the decathlon generates. "We decathletes are a very close community," he said. "We are all good mates. We have a mutual respect for each other.

"I also figured that the decathlon was my best chance of representing New Zealand in athletics. While I was good at most events during my high-school days, I wasn't brilliant in any one so I decided on the decathlon.

"I watched the decathlon on TV at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, where Doug Pirini represented New Zealand and thought: 'That's what I want to do when I get older."'

Pirini now coaches Newdick in most of the decathlon's 10 events. Newdick, who won secondary schools titles in the 110m hurdles and triple jump, still plays touch. He'd like to play rugby during winter but finds the sport incompatible with athletics because of time restraints and the injury factor.

"For me it is the quest to master the most challenging of all events," said Cox. "The decathlon gave me the freedom to do what I wanted and express myself in a way I didn't find with the team sports."

Vandermade said: "It's always a great feeling at the end of the two days to know that you have survived to fight another day. I also enjoy the camaraderie that the event engenders between all the competitors."

The event Vandermade likes most is one of the toughest, the 400m, where the athletes run to exhaustion. "I get a tremendous rush of adrenaline before the start and love the last 100m, fighting to the finish."

The 400m is Vandermade's best event. It is the last event on the first day of the two-day decathlon and, late on Friday, he ran a career best time of 47.88s, for the day's highest score of 915 points.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY