Kiwi Sportsmen Who Beat the Odds To Live Their Dream
Gregor Paul
It is well known that Kiwi sportsmen punch well above their weight in many different sporting arenas. What is perhaps less known is that some of them have had to battle extreme adversity to come back and live out their sporting dreams. Hard Men Fight Back is a collection of 17 remarkable stories of New Zealanders who have suffered severely, either through horrendous accidents, life-threatening illnesses or dire misfortune, yet have fought their way back to succeed in their chosen sport. Their courage, determination and tenacity make compelling reading.
Among them are young golfer Bradley Iles, legendary endurance athlete Steve Gurney, charismatic rugby league star Tawera Nikau, and current Highlanders rugby coach Greg Cooper, who was taken home to die from bone cancer as a teenager yet became an All Black by the age of 21. Eamonn Doyle’s conversion from a listless teenager into a national indoor rowing champion is almost too incredible to believe. A horrific motorcycle crash put him in a coma for four weeks and a rehabilitation centre for six months, yet he now wants to crew for Team New Zealand in its 2007 America’s Cup bid. Then there is young track athlete Jeffrey Thumath, who was diagnosed with testicular cancer at 17 and has endured chemotherapy and several serious bouts of surgery in the past three years, yet is now focusing on representing New Zealand at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Gregor Paul’s motivation for writing this book came from a medical crisis of his own, when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2002. He has since recovered, but in his work as a sports journalist for The Herald on Sunday he became aware of many sportsmen who had endured extreme setbacks yet had never given up. Inspired by their stories, he wrote this book. Gregor was raised in Scotland and now lives in Auckland with his wife and family.
SPECIFICATIONS
Size: 234 x 153 mm
Format: Paperback
Extent: 224 pages
Includes 17 photos
First published: August 2006
Weight: 500 gms
ISBN: 978-0-908988-83-9
