KEY POINTS:
As Olympic boss Barry Maister prepared to announce the athletics team for Beijing this week, the significance of the venue was not lost on him.
He had gathered the media in the John Walker Lounge at Mt Smart Stadium, the room named in honour of the man who
conjured up one of New Zealand sport's fondest memories when he crossed the finish line in a state of blissful triumph and exhaustion winning the 1500m gold at Montreal in 1976.
Maister, who netted gold himself at Montreal as a member of the hockey team, is constantly reminded of the place athletics holds in the country's Olympic tapestry. In his NZ Olympic Committee office he has a picture of Peter Snell; the committee's board meets in the Jack Lovelock Room.
"Over time, athletics has been our most successful sport in the Olympic Games _ 18 medals have been achieved through athletics and no other sport matches that," said Maister.
The sad truth, however, is that it has been a long time since athletics produced any winning Games moments.
The last medal was Lorraine Moller's gutsy marathon bronze in 1992, and the last gold was Walker's.
Even Athletics NZ selection convenor John Bowden admitted this week: "It has been a long time between drinks."
Notwithstanding that the drought should end this year - with shot putter Valerie Vili on track to add an Olympic medal to her golden world championship haul - Athletics NZ has set out on a determined course to ensure it sends a team of quality, not quantity.
If the team remains at the eight named this week - it could rise if several athletes who have been given deadline extensions post top performances over coming weeks - it will be the smallest athletics squad since Seoul in 1988 when just six were sent.
Thirteen went to Athens, nine to Sydney, and 18 to Atlanta, with none reaching the dais.
This time, selectors ruled that posting a qualifying time alone would not guarantee a ticket.
Athletes would have to prove they could achieve that consistently, and perform when it mattered in major events.
It's no longer good enough to win a singlet - athletes are expected to compete with distinction.
The policy has not won approval from all quarters, especially distance runners disappointed that a victim of the policy is Michael Aish who twice ran 2h 13m (below the 2h 15m A standard qualifying time) but has missed out because of poor previous performances at major championships.
John Henwood, who was at the centre of another marathon selection controversy prior to the 2006 Commonwealth Games, spoke out about Aish's treatment.
"My advice to Athletics NZ is `fight for your fricken athletes and get them on the starting line' because I want to see Kiwis there and don't give a ... if they don't perform because it hurts them a lot more than it hurts you," Henwood wrote on a running website messageboard, nzrun.com.
"They deserve it, especially if they do the standard."
Others encouraged Aish to appeal, but he posted a message saying he was not interested in fighting.
"From here out I'm not going to play their games," he wrote. "I've talked with my coach and feel that my best interest is to just 'run faster' and `win more'.
"Plus I don't want to be the guy at the party that no one wanted to be there."
Bowden said the new stance was about raising the level of performances on the world stage.
"We've got to get away a lot from standards. Obviously you have to do them, but as a sport we have to look at performances at the championships themselves. Getting there isn't enough."
He believed that the team's performance at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games was a step in the right direction, and that the world championships in Osaka last year were another.
"We performed above expectations at Oska and that indicated we were on the right path." As well as Vili's gold, the team scored three other top-16 performances (Nick Willis, 10th in the 1500m; Kimberley Smith, fifth in the 10,000m; and Nina Rillstone, 13th in the marathon).
Bowden said while outside agencies such as the NZOC and funding agency Sparc had supported the stance, the drive had come from within the sport.
Sparc's high performance manager Martin Toomey agreed.
"We need people to think big and think globally," he said.
"It means thinking about what it takes to win at world championship and Olympic level rather than at Commonwealth Games and world university games."
The way to build depth in the sport was to create a high-achieving environment, just as rowing had.
"Athletics NZ made a really smart decision about focusing on those that it can have an impact on. On the back of that comes success."
Creating a "performance culture" will set the standard for and encourage up-and-coming athletes.
TEAM SIZE AND MEDAL HAUL
2004: 13 athletes, no medals, three in top 16
2000: 9, no medals, one in top 16
1996: 18, no medals, four in top 16
1992: 13, Lorraine Moller, bronze, marathon; two others in top 16
1988: 6, no medals, three in top 16
1984: 14, no medals, six in top 16
1976: 10, John Walker, gold, 1500m; Dick Quax, silver, 5000m; four others in top 16
1972: 16, Rod Dixon, bronze, 1500m; three others in top 16
1968: 9, Mike Ryan, bronze, marathon; three others in top 16
1964: 14, Peter Snell, gold, 1500m and 800m; John Davies, bronze, 1500m; Marise Chamberlain, bronze, 800m; three others in top 16
1960: 14, Peter Snell, gold, 1500m; Murray Halberg, gold, 5000m; Barry Magee, bronze, marathon; two others in top 16
1956: 9, Norman Read, gold, 50km road walk; two others in top 16
1952: 4, Yvette Williams, gold, long jump; John Holland, bronze, 400m hurdles
1948: 3, no medals
1936: 3, Jack Lovelock, gold, 1500m
1932: 6, no medals, two others in top 16
1928: 4, no medals, one other in top 16
1924: 1, Arthur Porritt, bronze, 100m
1920: 2, no medals, two others in top 16
1912: 1, no medals
1908: 3, Harry Kerr, bronze, 3500m walk, one other in top 16
TOTAL MEDALS: 18 (8 gold, 1 silver, 9 bronze)
