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NZ Herald
6 days ago
- Sport
- NZ Herald
Rugby must tackle its coaching respect issue after Milton Haig quits
This focus on high-performance coaching set-ups is a result of the surprise announcement on Wednesday that New Zealand Under-20 head coach Milton Haig, having steered the team to a Rugby Championship title a few weeks ago, has stepped down just days before the team is due to depart for the Junior World Championships in Italy. Haig, an experienced coach who has strong provincial experience in New Zealand, was at the helm of Georgia at the 2015 and 2019 World Cups and has spent time with the Japanese club Suntory Sungoliath, said there were differences in opinion between him and his assistants about the team's style of rugby. He obviously felt those different views were irreconcilable and that, if he didn't have the support of his fellow coaches (Jarrad Hoeata, Alex Robertson and Craig Dunlea), it would be best for the team – specifically the players – if he fell on his sword. It was the honourable thing to do – a selfless act that demonstrated a recognition that ego and personal ambition can never be put ahead of the interests of the team. But can the same be said of his assistants, who, based on the facts as they have been presented, didn't seem to recognise that they were there to support and facilitate Haig's strategic vision and not impose their own? Milton Haig, when working with the US women's team. Photo / Getty Images Haig's actions may have been honourable, but the longer-term ramifications of a head coach sacrificing himself to appease his assistants are potentially significant and dangerous for the elite game. Whatever happened to sucking it up? To not liking something but doing it anyway because that's your job? There are workplaces across the country where people won't agree with the strategy being pursued by the boss, or don't particularly like their management style, but they get on with doing what is required and requested because this is part and parcel of being an adult and beholden to uphold professional standards. Rugby, to its credit, has tried to build collaborative coaching environments where assistants and specialists are encouraged to own their field, but perhaps there needs to be a re-evaluation in the wake of Haig's departure about how far down the track they want to go in this shift away from authoritarian regimes. There's room for assistants to be empowered, but not so much that they forget the subordinate nature of their roles. The best environments should operate with an element of professional friction, but not so much that the pushback undermines or disrespects the head coach's ultimate authority. Haig's unexpected decision to quit is not quite the isolated act it may seem. It marks the third time in as many years that a New Zealand national team has had some kind of dramatic and sudden shift in its internal coaching dynamics. In 2022, the Black Ferns were left scrambling to put a coaching team together only five months before the World Cup. Last year, All Blacks assistant Leon MacDonald quit after just five tests. MacDonald's departure was explained as a lack of compatibility between him and head coach Scott Robertson. Leaving aside the question of why this discovery wasn't made earlier, when they worked together at the Crusaders, it does suggest that there is a creeping problem of people thinking that their ambition to be a head coach should be catered for in any role they take. Something seems wrong with the wider culture – that there has been a failure to manage expectations, define boundaries and instil within all those entering the elite coaching ranks that teams need not only a clear hierarchy, but for that hierarchy to be recognised, respected and understood. New Zealand's great strength in previous eras was the ability of high-performance coaching teams to be able to disagree but commit. Between 2004 and 2011, when the three heavyweight figures of Graham Henry, Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith coached the All Blacks, the latter two didn't always agree with what the former was trying to achieve or the way he wanted them to do it, but they knew and respected that what they felt was ultimately not important. It was Henry's vision they were there to implement, not their own. Maybe now that a generation of Millennials is starting to win high-performance roles, that same ingrained respect for the hierarchy isn't there. Someone needs to get on top of this and restore order before every national coaching team is undermined or disrupted by the chaos that unfolds when there is confusion about who is in charge.
NZ Herald
28-05-2025
- Sport
- NZ Herald
On The Up: Bay of Plenty squash players heading to Egypt for world championships
Six Bay of Plenty squash players are preparing to represent New Zealand in Egypt at the Junior World Championships. Ella Hill, Erin Wyllie and Brooke Valois of Devoy Squash, Vihan Chathury and Jack Lord of Te Puke Squash, and Aria Bannister from Mount Maunganui, will travel to Cairo in July
Hindustan Times
26-05-2025
- Sport
- Hindustan Times
Haryana's pistol shooter Kanak Budhwar, gold winner at ISSF Junior World Cup Germany: Mujhe sirf target dikh raha tha!
At only 17, Kanak Budhwar has already achieved what many dream of — standing atop the podium with a gold medal, the Indian flag raised high in celebration. On Wednesday, the young shooter from Rohtak, Haryana, clinched India's first top finish at the ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany, winning the women's 10m air pistol event. In a high-pressure final, she kept her nerves steady and delivered a stellar score of 239, edging out two-time Olympian and reigning European champion Anna Dulce of Moldova by 1.7 points. But for Kanak, it wasn't about her competitors. 'My target wasn't on who I was competing against, but on believing fully in myself. I had the confidence that if I stayed focused, I would win a medal for my country. When I was standing in the arena, mujhe sirf target dikh raha tha… nothing else mattered,' she says. That laser-sharp focus and self-belief culminated in a moment Kanak calls unforgettable: 'Bahut achhi feeling hoti hai jab aap apna Tiranga lehrate huye dekhte ho. Every athlete dreams of this, and living it feels surreal.' Kanak is no stranger to the international stage, having previously won silver at the Junior World Championships. Behind her early success is a strong support system — a circle of believers who back young athletes long before the spotlight finds them. For Kanak, her coach Sandeep Nehra has been one such pillar: 'My coach has been the perfect guide and a rock in my life. I enrolled in his shooting academy at the very start, and he has stood by me every step of the way, helping me overcome obstacles. That's how I'm here today.' Her family's quiet, unwavering belief has been just as vital: 'Mummy papa ne jab samjha ki mujh mein shooting abilities hain unhone mujhe poora support diya. Not once did they make me feel this was an unusual path. That gave me the confidence to believe I can achieve anything.' Having now made her mark on the junior world stage, Kanak's vision is crystal clear — the Olympics. 'LA Olympics mein compete karungi aur India ke liye medal lekar aaungi. Yeh ab mera sapna hai,' she signs off.
Indian Express
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Indian Express
Raiza Dhillon takes inspiration from chat with Olympic silver medallist to shoot first medal at Suhl
Last year, when the then-20-year-old Raiza Dhillon competed in the Paris Olympics in the women's skeet event, the Panchkula resident was the youngest Indian shooter at Paris. Even though Dhillon, who had bagged the Paris quota for India in the Asian Qualifiers in Kuwait last year, finished 23rd and missed the final, the Haryana youngster spent some time with Paris Olympics silver medallist Amber Rutter of Great Britain. On Thursday, as the 21-year-old won the silver medal with Phoebe Bodley-Scott of Great Britain at the ISSF Junior World Cup, the Haryana shooter was recalling the conversation she had with Rutter in Paris. 'At the Paris Olympics, Amber Rutter was shooting after a gap of more than two years post her child's birth. Post her silver medal win, when I approached her, she told me, 'Enjoy shooting and give your best, rest of the things will fall in place.' That was the biggest lesson for me from Paris and this silver medal I would surely dedicate to Rutter's inspiring words to me,' said Dhillon while speaking with The Indian Express. Daughter of agriculturist Ravijit Singh Dhillon and Gul Dhilon, a sarpanch of their native village Shamgarh near Karnal in Haryana, Raiza along with Maheshwari Chauhan had become the first Indian women skeet shooters to compete at Olympics in Paris. The Haryana youngster, who had won a silver in the Junior World Championships in Changwon in 2023 had become only the second Indian woman skeet shooter to achieve so after Ganemat Sekhon in 2021. Prior to the Olympics, Dhillon would spend her time in Italy and India training under her personal coaches Ennio Falco and Amarinder Singh Cheema and to work on some changes in her technique. 'I was struggling with taking too much time on shooting my first shot which would result in getting very less time to shoot the second shot whether in the four shot round and two shot round in finals. So we were working on that and skeet shooting is something, where a minor change in technique also takes a lot of time. Of course, I would have wanted a better finish in the Paris Olympics but then I could not and I just treat it as the start to my shooting career,' says Raiza. Post Olympics, Raiza matched the junior national qualification record with a qualification score of 122 and followed that with matching Ganemat Sekon's national record of 124 with a score of 124/125 in the All India Inter-University Championships in February this year. Last month, Dhillon also made her first Senior World Cup final when she finished fifth in the ISSF World Cup in Lima last month. In Lima, Dhillon competed against the likes of three-time Olympic champion Kimberley Rhode of USA apart from Paris Olympics mixed team bronze medallist Yiting Jian of China, 2021 World Championships silver medallist Samantha Simonton of USA and multiple world championship and world cup medallist and Olympian Dania Jo Vizzi of USA. 'Competing in my first senior World Cup final was another high. While the Americans shoot the American style of mounting the gun from the right side, my technique is shooting the Italian way mounting the gun diagonally. And all of them there gave me some insights and to feel the final pressure too was a learning experience,' said Dhillon. On Thursday, Raiza qualified at the second spot behind Zarina Madeleine Russell of Great Britain after a three-way 24-shoot off between her, Phoebe Bodley-Scott and Annabella Hettmer of Germany, who were tied with a score of 116 each. In the final, Dhillon missed only one shot out of the first ten shots and would miss one shot again to be placed at the top ahead of Scott due to higher bib number. Even though she missed three of next 10 shots, Raiza maintained the top-three position after 30 shots with 25 hits and was behind Scott by one point. The next 30 shots saw Raiza miss only one shot as she won the silver with a score of 51 behind Scott's score of 53. 'Conditions were very windy today and the targets were going up and down instead of following a straight path. So I had to counter that with some quick movements of the gun. In recent times, I also had some problem with shooting at the two shot round with some struggle in hitting the second shot.I had conversations with national coach Riccardo Filippelli earlier and he had made some technical changes in my shooting for the second shot as the two-shot round sees the targets being the farthest from a shooter in skeet. I did miss some in the third series of ten shots but then I managed my cool in windy conditions to win the silver,' concluded Raiza. Nitin Sharma is an Assistant Editor with the sports team of The Indian Express. Based out of Chandigarh, Nitin works with the print sports desk while also breaking news stories for the online sports team. A Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award recipient for the year 2017 for his story 'Harmans of Moga', Nitin has also been a two-time recipient of the UNFPA-supported Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity for the years 2022 and 2023 respectively. Nitin mainly covers Olympics sports disciplines with his main interests in shooting, boxing, wrestling, athletics and much more. The last 17 years with The Indian Express has seen him unearthing stories across India from as far as Andaman and Nicobar to the North East. Nitin also covers cricket apart from women's cricket with a keen interest. Nitin has covered events like the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the 2011 ODI World Cup, 2016 T20 World Cup and the 2017 AIBA World Youth Boxing Championships. An alumnus of School of Communication Studies, Panjab University, from where he completed his Masters in Mass Communications degree, Nitin has been an avid quizzer too. A Guru Nanak Dev University Colour holder, Nitin's interest in quizzing began in the town of Talwara Township, a small town near the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh border. When not reporting, Nitin's interests lie in discovering new treks in the mountains or spending time near the river Beas at his hometown. ... Read More
New Indian Express
21-05-2025
- Sport
- New Indian Express
Balancing exercises, fast-paced shooting behind Kanak's medal display
CHENNAI: It was a tense battle among some of the brightest youngsters at the Shooting Center in Suhl, Germany on Wednesday. In the eight-woman final, India's Kanak Budhwar emerged the brightest as she captured the gold medal, handing India's first yellow metal in the ongoing ISSF Junior World Cup. After opening with 9.9, 9.4 and 9.5 (scores that's considered below-par), she retained her cool to stay in the hunt before going on to finish as topper with an aggregate score of 239 ahead of Olympian Anna Dulce, who garnered 237.3 in the junior women's 10m air pistol event. It's her first gold medal at this level and this is a step in the right direction for the 17-year-old from Haryana, who has lofty ambitions to be part of the 2028 Olympics. This outcome certainly means a world to Sandeep Nehra, her coach. Kanak, who's from Sunaria Village in Rohtak district, has been training at the Abhinandan Shooting Academy (Rohtak) under Sandeep for some time. It was Kanak's father who introduced to the sport and her family been a massive support for her. "I'm really thrilled. There's no words to describe this moment. My dream was for her to win gold. In the Junior World Championships last year, we won a silver medal. In other national competitions also, she had bagged silver. Our dreams have come true," he told this daily. Kanak's association with the sport began just five or so years ago. Sandeep said that they initially worked on her physical aspect. That is something that's bearing fruit. "She had first visited me during the pandemic. She was still a kid, she was 30-something kgs then. Initially, with the support of her parents, we worked on adding weight. We changed her diet so that she could gain weight. We decided against taking part in the nationals as she was not prepared mentally and she was not strong physically as well. We initially wanted her to be strong." Technology has also aided her progress. Sandeep revealed that they had been using scatt — a system that helps shooters practice their technique without needing to fire live rounds — since last year or so. SCATT is a useful training tool that helps shooters record various shooting metrics like trigger pull, shot dispersion etc. "We started using scatt and balancing excercise. By sitting behind her, it's impossible to judge those things. So SCATT helps in that regard. So we figured out what mistakes she was making and we worked on those mistakes. We had been at it ever since the conclusion of the junior World Championships," he noted. "One thing we found out was that there was a delay in her shooting. She used to take around 35-38 seconds. We brought that down to 12-14 seconds. By the time her rival was raising her pistol, Kanak would have shot by then. That was important as she is bound to feel less pressure. When there is delay, there's bound to some pressure. Training was done in such a way that she would shoot 10 shots in three minutes or three and a half minutes, so that she can fast-paced." That fast-paced shooting was visible during the final. She was also employing scatt on the day, something that would continue to help her evolve. According to her coach, Kanak's diligence and her ability to adapt is something that has propelled her so far. "She doesn't overthink. She is highly adaptable and she is highly disciplined. She is totally dedicated to the craft. She just says that wants to be part of the 2028 Olympics." This (gold) could be just the beginning for Kanak.
