Julie Ash: Year of exhilarating highs, heart-breaking lows

COMMENT

It's that time of year when you have eaten and drunk so much that losing weight automatically becomes a New Year resolution.

When the warm weather leads to lazy days on the beach where you can take a moment to reflect on the sporting year that has been and fantasise about what lies ahead.

For New Zealand sporting fans, 2003 could be described as rollercoaster ride.

Not one of those rides with a few pansy twists and turns, but one that plunges from great heights.

Sure, the highs were great. Who can forget the Silver Ferns' win, the Evers-Swindells' double sculls success, or Melissa Moon claiming another world mountain running title?

Then there was Ben Fouhy's canoeing success and Scott Dixon's amazing run in the Indy Racing League.

As for the lows - Team New Zealand's heartbreaking America's Cup loss, the All Blacks' semifinal defeat and the Black Caps' World Cup performance - they are best forgotten.

The question now is what will 2004 hold?

While the year gets off to a sizzling start with the tennis and the continuation of the Pakistan cricket tour, the first real high may come when the Black Sox take on the world this month.

New Zealand have won the world championships an impressive four times and when they line up in Christchurch they will be aiming to become the first team to win three consecutive world softball titles.

Seven players in the side were with the team when they won in 1996.

While defending a world title is difficult enough, capturing three in a row would be a remarkable feat.

A quick look back through New Zealand's sporting history proves how difficult such an achievement is, whether it be at the Olympics or a world championship event.

Plenty of Kiwis have achieved the double. Mark Todd and Charisma won gold at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics.

The New Zealand men's rowing eight won the world championships in 1982 and 1983, Peter Snell won the 800m at the 1960 Rome Olympics and again four years later in Tokyo, and Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald won Olympic golds in 1984 and1988.

Those who have gone one step further are Dame Susan Devoy, who won eight British Open titles between 1984 and 1992 and four world open titles, and Russell Coutts and his Kiwi clan, who have won the America's Cup three times.

The Black Sox are more than capable of the hat-trick and may just provide New Zealand with their first sporting high of the year.