1970-1979 Halberg Award Winners

1970 Harry Kent

Until 1970, New Zealand had never won a cycling gold medal at a Commonwealth Games. In 1970 in Edinburgh, the only two New Zealand gold medals were in cycling - the road race won by Aucklander Bruce Biddle and the km time trial by Harry Kent of Wellington. The kilo, as it’s known, is one of the most brutal of events, an all-out race against the clock. Kent won in a Games record time, urged on by his coach and one of the most competitive cyclists New Zealand has known, Warwick Dalton. A few weeks later, Kent did it again - almost - when he won the silver medal, New Zealand’s first, at the world championships in England.

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1971 & 1972 New Zealand Rowing Eight

For two years, the New Zealand rowing eight dominated the world in its sport, New Zealanders basked in the reflected glory and wept when the oarsmen wept on the victory dais at the Munich Olympics. Coach Rusty Robertson had learned his craft in Oamaru and assembled an eight-oar crew of formidable proportions - coxswain Simon Dickie, stroke Tony Hurt, Wybo Veldman (7), Dick Joyce (6), John Hunter (5), Lindsay Wilson (4), Athol Earl (3), Trevor Coker (2) and Gary Robertson (bow). In Copenhagen in 1971, the New Zealanders stunned the powerful Russian and East German crews with their commitment and strength. The question then became, could they do it again at the Munich Olympics? To the joy of all New Zealanders, they could - providing a never-to-be-forgotten moment of Olympic glory on the water and a memorable and poignant display of emotion and nationalism on the victory dais.

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1973 Glenn Turner

The cricket career of Glenn Turner was characterised by an uncompromising quest for excellence, from the time he emerged as a callow youth from Otago Boys High School until his two periods as New Zealand coach. Turner, of Otago, Northern Districts, Worcestershire and New Zealand, was one of the finest batsmen his country produced, the consummate professional in an era that was sometimes still amateur. In 1973, Turner became the first batsman since England’s Bill Edrich in 1938 to score 1000 runs before the end of May and, as the 1973 English season continued, he completed the distinction of scoring a century against all the English counties (including one for New Zealand against his own county, Worcestershire). Batting records and milestones fell to him as the seasons unfolded, including the rare feat of 100 centuries. Turner coached New Zealand in 1985-1987 in a period of distinguished results and again in 1995-1996.

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1974 Richard Tayler

When the Commonwealth Games were held in Christchurch in 1974, they couldn’t have had a more explosive or more nationalistic beginning than they did when Richard Tayler won the 10,000 metres on the track on the first day. It was a classic 10,000 metres, Tayler running at his own measured pace, confident that the frontrunners out ahead of him could always be caught and beaten. By the last few laps, there was only Tayler and Englishman David Black and then, by the end, only Tayler. The joy he showed as he crossed the finish line was reflected throughout New Zealand. The tragedy was that Tayler’s ecstatic win marked the end of his varied and ultimately successful career, rather than a new beginning. Arthritis cruelly ended his involvement in the sport he graced.

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1975 & 1976 John Walker – 1970s Decade Champion

Among athletics followers, John Walker in early 1974 was a name to remember for the future. When he chased home Filbert Bayi in the world record 1500 metres final at the Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, all of New Zealand saw that here was a successor to such illustrious names as Jack Lovelock and Peter Snell. The following year, in 1975 in Gothenburg in Sweden, Walker became the first athlete to run a mile in under 3min 50s, a barrier every bit as significant as the four minutes that Roger Bannister had broken 21 years before. In 1976, Walker emulated Lovelock and Snell again when he won the 1500 metres at the Montreal Olympic Games. Injury curtailed and threatened Walker’s career, but he fought back to become one of the most durable runners in athletics history. He ran in the 5000 metres at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 and in 1985, he became the first to run 100 sub-four minute miles. Even in his mid-30s, he was running at the top level and competed in the 1500 metres at the Auckland Commonwealth Games in 1990. He was an athletics phenomenon.

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1977 & 1979 Ivan Mauger

When people talk of speedway, they talk of Ivan Mauger, a New Zealander who dominated the sport through the 70s and who achieved feats that time could prove to be unmatchable. He won more than 1000 events in 26 countries, including 15 world championships, 10 world seconds and four thirds. Mauger won the blue riband event of the sport, the world individual (short-track) title, first in 1968, then again in 1969 and 1970, the first to achieve a hat-trick. He was second in 1971 and won again in 1972. A record-equalling fifth title won him the Sportsman of the Year accolade in 1977, but perhaps his greatest achievement was in 1979 when, a month short of his 40th birthday, at Katowice in Poland, he became world champion for a record sixth time. A New Zealander began the sport of speedway in the 1930s, and a New Zealander was king of it in the 70s.

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1978 Gary Hurring

With Games medalists Lincoln Hurring and Jean Stewart as his parents, it could be said - and was - that Gary Hurring was born to swim and succeed. And he did. He went to the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton in 1978 as a 16-year-old and stunned New Zealanders, and the swimming world, with a matchless win in the 200 metres backstroke. He might have won the 100 metres backstroke as well, but misjudged a touch in his heat and was disqualified. Within a few weeks of Edmonton, Hurring was against top-class opposition in the pool again, this time at the world championships, and he was second to American Jesse Vasstallo in the 200 metres backstroke for the first world swimming medal to be won by a New Zealander. Hurring’s career was dogged by shoulder muscle injuries, the bane of a backstroker’s life, and he had to withdraw from the 1982 Commonwealth Games but he showed his quality with a fourth in the Los Angeles Olympics.

Caricatures designed by Paul Clarkson