Alistair McMurran

The Czech Republic curling team would not be competing at the New Zealand Winter Games if their country had still been a communist state.

The Chinese women's curling team has done the hard yards and is now challenging Canada for world supremacy in the sport.

Dunedin snooker players Alan Gill and Garry Hale (Dunedin Metropolitan) dropped only two frames on their way to a record seventh South Island pairs title in Christchurch at the weekend.

Southland Boys will play Waitaki Boys in the final of the Highlanders First XV competition in Invercargill on Saturday following a dramatic weekend.

Blake Sinclair is an optimist. He believes his Dunedin Thunder team can beat the Botany Swarm this weekend.

Southland Boys lost the game but won the prize of a home final in the Zero Fees Highlanders secondary schools competition with a last minute penalty goal at the University Oval today.

Dean Horo will end his part-time role with Otago rowing at the end of next month to concentrate on his expanding role at the New Zealand Academy of Sport South Island in Dunedin.

Waves club swimmer Phoebe Williams reached a milestone when she broke the long-standing Otago senior 1500m freestyle record in Christchurch on Thursday night.

Dave Ross has joined an elite group of three development coaches who are being groomed to coach the Black Sticks.

Olympic shot put champion Valerie Vili is the only New Zealand athlete expected to win a medal at the world athletics championships starting in Berlin tomorrow.

Three promising Otago motocross riders - Campbell King, Courtney Duncan and Sam O'Callaghan - will make their international debuts at the world junior championships in Taupo this weekend.

New Zealand cricket great Sir Richard Hadlee will be the special guest speaker at a luncheon next month to farewell the Otago Volts cricket team.

The Otago Youth football team finished 14th and achieved its best placing in eight Milk Cup under-17 international tournaments.

The gap narrowed in the last lap and Rebekah Greene was forced to pull out the stops to hold on to her lead and give St Hildas a slim win in the senior girls race at the Otago secondary schools road relay at Kings High School yesterday.

Dunedin mountain biker Tony Hogg learnt a hard lesson when he collapsed while leading the world solo 24-hour endurance championships in Alberta, Canada last month.

Hard-working Taieri openside flanker Jeremy Corliss received the ODT-Speight's Cup for being named the Dunedin premier rugby player of the year at the awards function at Carisbrook last night.

Dunedin's Ricky Welsford (Taieri) showed why he is a candidate for next year's Commonwealth Games by dominating the New Zealand club wrestling championships in Mosgiel on Saturday.

There was a blend of the old and the new in the men's four that helped Otago win its first indoor bowls match against the North Island for eight years.