KEY POINTS:
Gemma Flynn had resigned herself to missing the Beijing Olympics.
So when the Tauranga teenager got a call from national women's coach Kevin Towns on Sunday saying "Are you sitting down", she thought 'Oh no'.
"Then he said 'You're going to the Olympics'," Flynn said last night.
The
18-year-old striker had returned home from her North Shore base for the weekend. Her brother had come north from university so it turned into a mini family reunion-cum-celebration.
"It was pretty exciting, a bit emotional. I was just really surprised. It was pretty surreal. I'm just lucky I guess," she said.
But Towns doesn't make selections based on luck. Flynn nailed her spot at the four-team tournament in Beijing last month, at which world No 7 New Zealand twice beat Spain 3-0, lost 2-1 to Japan and drew 1-1 with hosts China.
Flynn's rise has been meteoric.
She switched to soccer for the third and fourth forms, making the Tauranga Girls College first XI, going to the nationals, playing rep soccer but "I always liked hockey a wee bit more".
Early last year, Flynn made the junior women's Black Sticks, followed by a full national league season with Midlands, then the call-up to the senior national team for the series against Korea in February, when she made her debut.
Flynn, who has 14 caps, is in at the expense of Charlotte Harrison, another 18-year-old, who was the face of the future at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games and who has already won over 50 caps.
Flynn will share striking duties with two players with over 130 caps, Niniwa Roberts and Jaimee Claxton, and Auckland's Krystal Forgesson, who has played 66 internationals.
Two strikers at opposite ends of the age spectrum, veteran Bevan Hari, 33, and Nick Wilson,17, have missed selection in the men's squad of 16.
They were among a group of six taken on the final Games build-up tour to Europe last month. The other four, Gareth Brooks, Phil Burrows, Simon Child and David Kosoof, won selection for Beijing.
There is a bucket of experience, with eight players boasting more than 100 caps - captain Ryan Archibald, able to put the misery of missing the Athens Olympics with an injury four years ago, has bagged more than 200.
New Zealand, world No 10, finished at the Azlan Shah tournament in Malaysia in May and had a good workout in Europe, including games against Olympic rivals Spain, Belgium and world No 1 Germany.