OPINION: Our Manawatu Standard photographers were flabbergasted when they fronted up to cover the national roller derby tournament at Arena Manawatu on Saturday.

They discovered conditions imposed on taking shots of the great skaters were more stringent than even those for the Rugby World Cup. Every other sport welcomes publicity, but this was something extraordinary. An outfit called Swamp City Roller Rats, which the Standard wrote a feature on last month, has a sponsorship with a Foxton photographer demanding publication of her images or for our photos to be signed over to the Rats.

We were asked to seek permission from skaters "when obtaining material sensitive to injuries occurred on the day". Unbelievable.

Our intrepid photographer Faith Sutherland innocently snapped a few shots before two people came and stood in front of her camera, blocking her view. A contract form was thrust in front of her, at which time she bailed out.

■ YoungHeart Manawatu have another high-profile football match on the cards. We hear they are playing a televised match as a curtainraiser to a Wellington Phoenix game. The game, to be shown on Sky TV, will be on December 2 against either Waikato FC or Waitakere United. It will be a home game for YoungHeart but will be played at Wellington's Westpac Stadium.

■ Kris Gemmell fans will have to wait until the end of the year to see the London Olympian on Kiwi soil.

The Manawatu triathlete, who finished 15th at the London Games, still has a busy schedule during the next few months. Gemmell competed at the ITU world triathlon event in Stockholm last weekend. He is heading to the United States before competing at Yokohama, Japan, next month. He should be back in December for the ITU world final in Auckland, which could be his swansong.

■ We hear rising 11-year-old Palmerston North cricketer Hassan Javed wrote a letter to Sir Richard Hadlee and received a reply. His family thought it was kind of nice. Hadlee described in length how he got to spend 18 years playing for New Zealand and how he greatly admires Nelson Mandela.

■ Palmerston North running prodigy Kara Macdermid, aged just 15, won the women's under-20 race at the Australian cross-country championships at the Oakland Racecourse in Adelaide on Saturday.

The Feilding Moa runner won the 6km race in 24 minutes 27 seconds, 12 seconds clear of a New South Wales runner, and the best New Zealander by one minute. Macdermid is unbeaten this season and also won the New Zealand women's 19 title earlier this month, the North Island cross-country senior title, the Dorne Cup and the Hughes Memorial.

■ For star Feilding High School rugby player Hayley Hutana, the harder she practises the better she gets.

In the Hurricanes girls' final at Arena Manawatu on Saturday, she was taking a conversion from the sideline when the ball fell off the kicking tee. She calmly picked it up and drop-kicked it over.

While others put their feet up, she practises her kicking with father Stu. And she converts tries galore in sevens with her drop-kicks.

- © Fairfax NZ News