Six to watch: New Zealand

Our top contenders range from veterans to teenagers but something they have in common is willpower as well as talent, says DAVID LEGGAT

HANNAH MCLEAN

It was on the opening morning of the national championships in Waitakere that Hannah McLean first hinted that she might produce something special at the Olympics.

The championships - which doubled as the Olympic selection trials, the only time and place swimmers could post a time to get into an individual event in Athens - roared into life as the 22-year-old from the North Shore club whizzed through her heat in the 100m backstroke in 1m 01.55s, quicker than any Australian at their equivalent meet, to post an A qualifying standard.

She followed up by qualifying in the 200m backstroke, in the slower Swimming New Zealand standard, clocking 2m 13.71s.

The shorter distance appears her better chance to make a statement on the world stage. As a yardstick, her qualifying time in the 100m would have placed her third at the US Olympic trials in Long Beach, California last month.

McLean missed a spot at the Sydney Games by 0.17s. That fuelled her desire to make the step up for Athens.

"It was a bit of a turning point. I was absolutely gutted to miss out. It made me tougher and gave me more grit to keep going another four years and really make sure I'd got my preparation right," she said.

Jean Stewart is the only New Zealand woman swimmer to have won an Olympic medal, a bronze in the 100m at Helsinki 52 years ago.

It's not going to be easy but McLean, who has a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in English, is making the right waves to give herself the best possible chance of emulating Stewart.

GREG HENDERSON

The golden hour of New Zealand's Olympic history saw Peter Snell and Sir Murray Halberg win within 60 minutes of each other in Rome, 1960.

For cycling fans, a Friday night in Melbourne in May came close to equalling that.

Until this year, only one Kiwi had won a world track cycling championship title - Karen Holliday, who won the points race in Japan in 1990.

But on May 28, golden girl Sarah Ulmer broke the 14-year drought, clinching gold in the individual pursuit. Within the hour, Dunedin's Greg Henderson repeated the effort, winning the scratch race.

Henderson's victory was probably a surprise to everyone but him. He is supremely confident and an accomplished rider who will be at his third Olympic Games.

The scratch race is not on the Olympic programme so the 27-year-old will compete in the points race in which he won gold at the Manchester Commonwealth Games.

He will also ride with Hayden Roulston in the madison, an event in which the pair won world championship silver last year.

Henderson got his first breaks as a BMX rider, later graduating to road cycling under the encouragement of his brother.

He has ridden for pro-cycling teams in the United States, including Health Net, where he demonstrated his tough mental attitude.

Asked on the team website which cyclists he admired, Henderson answered: "I respect a lot of professional cyclists but don't look up to any of them. I feel if I look up to them, then I will class them as a better cyclist than me and then that will hold me at a psychological disadvantage."

VALERIE ADAMS

Not even the searing pain of a ruptured appendix could hold Valerie Adams back.

The 2002 world junior shot put champion had to interrupt her Olympic preparations to have her appendix removed a month ago.

But in typical fashion, the indomitable teenager was quickly back down at the track with coach, friend and sometime caregiver Kirsten Hellier.

Adams is treading a path laid out by her former world champion team-mate, discus thrower Beatrice Faumuina, making women's field events the most successful discipline of New Zealand track and field.

On August 18, Adams faces the toughest moment of her young career at the historic venue for the Olympic shot put at Ancient Olympia, about four hours from Athens.

She is ranked ninth in the world for this year, thanks to a New Zealand record throw of 18.96m in Sydney in February. Remarkably, she is by three years the youngest athlete in the top 10.

Yet it has been five years since Adams began striding the world athletics stage, taking a 10th place at the 1999 world youth championships.

Her best year was 2002, when she not only easily won gold at the world juniors in Kingston but went to the Manchester Commonwealth Games as a 17-year-old and stunned the field by stealing silver.

Despite the operation, the build-up for her Olympic debut has been strong and the New Zealand team has big hopes for the 19-year-old, made up of equal parts brute force and sensitivity.

Adams travels with a photograph of her late mother, Lilika, who died of cancer in 2000. The photograph is a constant reminder of the inspiration in her life and the woman who encouraged her to become an athlete.

BEN FOUHY

Two years ago, the canoeing world had not heard of a guy called Ben Fouhy, from Taumarunui.

Now he is destined to strike gold.

Fouhy, 25, jolted canoeing purists by clinching the K1 1000 world championship title last year, just 18 months after switching to sprint kayaking from multi-sport and marathon paddling.

He made a commitment to the sport after a chance meeting with Steven Ferguson, son of canoeing legend and four-time gold medallist Ian, at the supermarket. A chat at the checkout launched their career as a pairs combination.

"Until then I didn't know if I was going to stay in Auckland," said Fouhy. "But when I heard Ferg was coaching and Steve was starting, it all seemed to fall into place."

Fouhy and Ferguson jnr's K2 1000 pairing came fourth at the world championships last year and they will line up in Athens, too.

He capped off 2003 by being named the sportsman of the year at the Halberg Awards.

From obscurity, Fouhy is now being talked of in international media as favourite for the K1 1000 title. To achieve that, he will have to overcome some tough competition, including Australian Nathan Baggaley, former world champion Eirik Veras Larsen, of Norway, and Sydney bronze medallist Tim Brabants, of Britain.

Ian Ferguson is confident about Fouhy's chances, saying he is probably the fittest paddler in the world. He calls Fouhy and Ferguson jnr "liquid lightning".

Not bad for newcomers.

BARBARA KENDALL

Barbara Kendall has a gold, silver and bronze set of medals - now she can claim a New Zealand Olympic record.

If the Mistral sailor makes it to the victory dais in Athens, she will be the first New Zealander to win a medal at four games.

Only herself, equestrian Mark Todd and rower Simon Dickie have won medals at three games.

Kendall, who will turn 37 the day after the Olympics, has been a dominant force since women's boardsailing was introduced at Barcelona in 1992. She won gold that year, followed it up with silver in 1996 and bronze in 2000.

When you add to that the 1988 gold and 1984 bronze medals won by her boardsailing brother Bruce, the Kendall family of Auckland have won medals at six straight games.

The course since Sydney has been unusual for Barbara Kendall. Forever the tough competitor, her bronze medal left her with the feeling that although she had sailed as well as she could, it was tough to accept that two others had beaten her.

She took a break from the sport so she and husband-coach Shayne Bright could have a baby.

In 2002, 15 months after the birth of daughter Samantha, Kendall stunned opponents by winning her third world championship at her first international regatta for two years.

She followed that up with a second place at the world championship last year, clinching a place in Athens and a chance of a place in history.

HAYDEN SHAW

If Sohail Abbas of Pakistan is regarded as the world's most formidable penalty corner striker, big New Zealand defender Hayden Shaw is not far behind.

And New Zealand will be looking to his drag flick to be a steady supply of goals in Athens as they try to make their mark on the men's hockey tournament.

Having made his international debut in January 2002, the 1.95m, 105kg Shaw was a star of the march to the final of the Commonwealth Games that year. He finished the tournament top scorer with 13. He averages about a goal a game in about 60 internationals.

"It's the boys getting the corners; I just have to put them away," he said modestly of his Manchester exploits.

But New Zealand should savour having a world-class goalscorer; he won't be around much longer. Shaw has ambitions to play cricket for New Zealand. A fast-medium bowler, he has already represented Canterbury.

He plans to give it two determined years from the end of the Olympics to see how far he can progress. He has declined offers to play hockey around the world.

"I'm really looking forward to the Olympics, but cricket presents a challenge I want to take up. I'd hate to finish my sports career wondering 'what if'?"

Helping New Zealand to a medal in Athens would be the perfect sendoff.