The pain and the
glory

Intimate portraits of six of our top
Commonwealth Games athletes

The countdown is on to the Commonwealth Games. New Zealand has more than 230 athletes heading to Glasgow and there are high hopes for a swag of gold medals. The Herald photographer Greg Bowker spent time with six of our athletes—including Silver Fern Cathrine Latu and parasport swimmer Sophie Pascoe—during their training in the lead-up to the games. Writer Suzanne McFadden found out what motivates them, and their passions outside of sport.

Inspirational Ink

Latu has a tattoo on her shooting forearm Strenght, Lova, Pasion written backwards. “Those are the things that I needed to keep me in the game,” she says. “It’s written backwards because it’s just me… different.” Spending four years in the international netball wilderness waiting to play for the Silver Ferns after representing Samoa could have broken her but she stayed strong. “I’vewaited eight years to finally play for New Zealand at the Commonwealth Games. And this is it,” she says.

Mum knows best

Growing up in Northland, the sixth kid in a family of 10, Latu never wanted to play netball, admitting now she was “too lazy”. But her mum, Mary-Anne, pushed her to give it a go, knowing her height (now 189cm) would take her far. With two of the most dependable hands in the game, Latu was the most accurate shooter in this year’s ANZ Championship, with a 94 per cent success rate.

Stand Up

With the shock retirement of Irene vanDyk sevenweeks before the Games, Latu was promoted to the Ferns’ No. 1 goal shoot. “It’s time she stood up,” coach Wai Taumaunu says. “She’s older and wiser now. She’s got test matches against Australia under her belt and I have real confidence that she will.”

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Golden Promise

Pascoe continues to live up to a promise made to her grandfather, "Gragra", before he died — to swim at a Paralympics and win gold. Today, her Paralympic haul stands at six golds and four silvers. Although her life changed course when, aged 2, her left leg was amputated below the knee after a ride-on lawnmower accident, "to this day I believe it is the best thing that ever happened to me."

Personal Best

In her first appearance in a team with able-bodied athletes, Pascoe will swim in the para-swimming SB9 category 100m breaststroke and SM10 200m individual medley. But she’s not setting her sights on medals; she’s racing the clock. "I’m going to be after PBs (personal bests) in my two races; that’s all I’m going for. Every time you go to race it’s to beat your previous times and records." A place on the podium, she says, is a bonus.

Passion for fashion

One day, most likely when she’s finished swimming, Pascoe hopes to design her own line of women’s fashion. And it will be beautiful gowns, rather than sporty Lycra or swimming togs. A photo model for Christchurch based jeweller Silvermoon, she admits to loving fashion and accessorising "almost as much as I love swimming".

Golden Child

While still in short pants at Auckland Grammar, Webster was a triple world champion. In the space of four days, at the 2009 junior world track champs in Moscow, he claimed gold in the sprint, keirin and team sprint. He added two Commonwealth medals to his collection the following year bronze in the sprint and silver in the team sprint, even after a spectacular crash when his rear tyre blew out. With Ethan Mitchell and Eddie Dawkins, he’s now the reigning team sprint world champion putting the trio in pole position for gold in Glasgow.

Wiki Pedaller

Nicknamed Wiki because of his inquisitive nature Webster has taken a new view on cycling since his shattering omission from the 2012 London Olympic team. He’s now deeply into sports science, moving out of his Auckland family home to his own house in Cambridge, near the new National Cycling Centre of Excellence. A big move, after years of training in his coach’s garage.

Record Collector

When he’s not trying to set records, Webster is buying them, boosting his collection of vintage vinyl LPs. He prides himself on making a decent espresso, and teaching his labrador, Mushka, refined manners.

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The butterfly effect

Pritchard, who emigrated from South Africa at 16, trained as a classical dancer before donning the gloves, which accounts for her clever footwork, coordination, good balance and powerful legs. Like Muhammad Ali, she says, “You really do have to float like a butterfly.”

All in the family

Her coach, Cameron Todd, is also her husband. Todd, who once trained an amateur David Tua, was in her corner at the London Olympics, where Pritchard became the first Kiwi woman to win an Olympic bout. She finished fifth in the women’s 60kg class, but what she learned about mental preparation after a win, was even more valuable. Her strengths? “Definitely her intelligence,” Todd says. “She’s one of the strongest boxers, mentally, that I’ve ever coached. And she’s got a very strong right hand. I think her chances are very good. “Physically, she can win it.”

Piece of cake

She’s not afraid to take a hook to the nose or a sharp jab in the abs but outside the boxing ring, tough woman Pritchard loves to decorate cakes. Baking and decorating is her creative release from six-days-a-week hard physical training, and work as a physiotherapist at Rangitoto College. She has a website for her novelty cake creations her specialty, chocolate mud cake.

Bow to greatness

He may be one of the best players that Sevens has seen a prolific try scorer and last year’s IRB Sevens Player of the Year but Mikkelson is reverential to the greats who went before him. “I’ve got Eric Rush’s jersey, so I’ve got big shoes to fill. So every time I go out there I try to do my best and lead from the front.”

Quick Step

At 1.92m tall and 103kg, Mikkelson doesn’t fit the mould of a traditional wing. But he’s deceptively quick, the fittest in the squad, according to coach Sir Gordon Tietjens, and the ultimate utility; happy to play prop, centre midfield or wing. Part of the New Zealand Sevens who won Commonwealth gold in 2010, Mikkelson rates the Games as “one step higher” than the Sevens World Cup, by virtue of being part of a larger, multisport Kiwi team.

Master Chef

In between training sessions, Mikkelson is taking papers in coaching, with the view to becoming a future sevens coach. He’s a keen cook; his trademark dish is chicken stirfry. He’s also working at training his british bulldog, Gazza: “He doesn’t know many tricks, but he eats and sleeps a lot.”

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All-Rounder

Walsh triumphed in many different fields before he got serious with the shot. Diagnosed with dyslexia at 7, his determination saw him leave high school with University Entrance. He was a handy rugby and hockey player, and talented all-round cricketer, taking up a six-month scholarship at the esteemed Winchester College in England. But, ultimately, athletics prevailed.

Homegrown Rivalry

It’s a competitive athlete’s dream. Walsh doesn’t have to go far to find a spirited rival—in fellow Commonwealth Games shot putter and two-time world junior champ Jacko Gill. Both athletes seem to push each other to greater distances, but it’sWalsh who’s been out-heaving Aucklander Gill this year setting a New Zealand record and winning his fifth straight national title, fresh from snatching world indoor bronze in Poland. A stint of training in Switzerland with golden girl Valerie Adams has helped too.

If I had a hammer

When he’s not pushing weights or tossing a heavy lump of metal, Walsh is helping to rebuild Christchurch. Three days a week, the young builder works for the largest home building firm in the quake-ravaged city. The rest of the week, he’s at home in Timaru training with his long-time coach Ian Baird. Building, he says, is his hobby. In the future, he’d like to try farming.

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