Vili, Drysdale tipped for honours

DON SCOTT/The Press

HEAVE HO: Valerie Vili carries the weight of New Zealand's medal-winning expectations at the world athletic championships in Osaka this weekend.

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World shot put champion Valerie Vili will "appear" in Christchurch if she strikes gold at tonight's Halberg Awards - thanks to the marvels of modern technology.

Vili - totally dedicated to winning an Olympic Games gold medal in Beijing - has opted to stay in Auckland and compete in the tongue-twister event run by the Black Singlet Invitational International Association of Athletic Federations.

She arrived home yesterday from Australia where she won the Sydney Grand Prix on Saturday. Halberg organisers are still hoping she might have a change of heart and make the 2007 awards presentation at the James Hay Theatre in the Christchurch Town Hall.

But a live video link has been arranged between Christchurch and Waitakere Stadium where Vili - hot favourite for the Sportswoman of the Year title - is scheduled to compete. The Aucklander won New Zealand's first world track and field championships gold medal in a decade in Japan last year and is now ranked No. 1 in the world.

Vili's hottest competition for the Westpac-sponsored Halberg Award for the overall sporting champion is likely to be world rowing champion Mahe Drysdale, the 2006 winner.

Drysdale - who faces intense competition for the sole Olympic single sculls nomination from 2000 Olympic champion Rob Waddell - is the first rower to win three consecutive world championship gold medals.

If he wins the overall prize tonight, Drysdale will still be one title shy of Waddell's unprecedented feat of three consecutive Halberg Awards between 1998 and 2000.

The only other consecutive winners in Halberg Awards history were the New Zealand rowing eight (1971-72) and former world mile record holder and 1976 Olympic Games 1500m champion John Walker (1975-76).

Other two-time winners include speedway ace Ivan Mauger (1977-79), champion cricketer Richard Hadlee (1980-86) and rower Philippa Baker, the outright winner in 1991 and joint winner in 1994 with her world champion double sculls team-mate, Brenda Lawson.

Baker and her older sister, Erin, the triathlon champion who won in 1989, remain the only siblings to win Halberg Awards.

Seven world champions are among tonight's category finalists. All four Sportswoman of the Year contenders -- Vili, Timaru's Nicole Begg (in-line speed skating), Katherine Prumm (motocross) and Sarah Walker (BMX cycling) were world champions in 2007.

If Vili takes the big prize, she will emulate the effort of fellow field athlete Beatrice Faumuina, the Halberg winner and world discus champion in 2007.

This is the 45th anniversary of the Halberg Trust-organised awards which began in 1963.

It was the brainchild of Olympic and Empire Games track gold medallist Murray Halberg who spoke at a fundraising dinner for crippled children in Toronto in 1962.

Halberg was so moved by the occasion that he set up the Murray Halberg Trust for Crippled Children which resurrected the Sportsman of the Year award.

Many former Halberg Award winners are on the guest list, including John Walker and 1974 Christchurch Commonwealth Games 10,000m gold medallist Dick Tayler.

- © Fairfax NZ News