Olympic Games: NZ's big hopes bunched in first week

800m runner Nikki Hamblin could fly the kiwi flag all the way to the finals. Photo / Brett Phibbs

No day is shaping like Super Saturday did in Beijing, but the New Zealand Olympic Committee will know by the end of the first week in London whether they have enjoyed a good Games. Virtually all New Zealand's realistic medal hopes compete in the first week - and most of them have finished their programmes by the middle weekend.

The NZOC department held a planning meeting in Auckland this week and somewhere near the top of the agenda would have been how to sustain interest in the Games when it looks like the last week will peter out into a medal-less void.

That's not entirely true. Expect to see Valerie Adams on a podium, Monday night local time, Tuesday morning here. Nikki Hamblin and Nick Willis could fly the flag all the way to middle-distance finals and the women's hockey team has the recent results to suggest it can end years of Olympic underachievement. Sprint kayaker Lisa Carrington has emerged as a genuine medal hope in the K1 200m.

Aside from that, you could say in terms of the strengths of the team we will send, the Olympics are seriously front-loaded. There will be nothing like Beijing, when Kiwis brought home five medals in less than 12 hours.

Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell won gold in the double sculls, George Bridgewater and Nathan Twaddle won bronze in the pairs and Mahe Drysdale bronze in the singles.

Hayden Roulston picked up a silver in the individual pursuit and, crowning the day, Adams won gold at the Bird's Nest in the shot.

"In the first week, New Zealanders will see a number of its high-performance athletes," said NZOC secretary-general Kereyn Smith.

Rowing, track cycling and the equestrian eventers all complete their programmes in that first week."

To that add the road cycling, where New Zealand has a great chance of a medal with Linda Villumsen in the time trial and an outside chance in the men's road race with Greg Henderson and Julian Dean, if fit and selected.

The bulk of New Zealand's medals are expected to come in rowing, the boards of the velodrome and on the breezes of the English Channel.

While the sailing continues into the second week, the RS:X, 49er and Finn programmes are completed by the end of the first week.

If you wake up on Monday, August 6 feeling disappointed by the medal tally, it's unlikely to get much better by the time the closing ceremony rolls around six days later.