Sideline Sid Sports correspondant & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

With just two and a half weeks to the London Olympics, Sideline Sid is looking forward to watching the Kiwi's ‘Go for Gold' on television.

The really good news this year is not only five dedicated Sky channels, but for the first time there will be almost 24 hour coverage on free to air television.

Prime will have around the clock coverage, albeit plenty of highlights and delayed coverage.

The further really really good news for the myriad of sports nuts like Sidline Sid is that because London is eleven hours behind New Zealand, many of the glamour events such as the swimming and track and field will take place around breakfast and mid-morning in our time.

While, in no time at all the London Olympics will be nothing but a memory, attention will then turn to Rio in 2016 where there could be a number Western Bay of Plenty athletes on show.

The entrance of Rugby Sevens at the Rio Olympics, has become the catalyst for the huge development of both Men's and Women's Sevens in the country. While the Men's Sevens program will continue to roll along, there is a huge push to develop our Women's Sevens players into gold medal winners in Rio.

Go4Gold is a NZ Rugby Union initiative that hopefully leads to Olympic Gold for the New Zealand Women's 7's team (along with the men) in Rio. Starting with a blank page, the first step has been to talent scout highly gifted sportswomen in the country, no matter what sport they shine at.

During the early months of this year, regional ID camps were held throughout the country. In the Bay, ID camps where held in the Eastern Bay, Rotorua and the Western Bay where current and potential Women's 7's players were put through a series of skill sets.

During June two Secondary schoolgirls Sevens tournaments, along with Senior Women's games, were held at the Paengaroa Domain. The Women sevens development program continues in July with two further skills camps. A further step will be the establishment of a Women's 7's Academy, which will include strength and condition support, training camps and individual training programmes.

In August a selected Bay Women's 7's team will be in action for the first time, at a Northern Region Go4Gold tournament in Auckland, where the Bay of Plenty team will face sides representing North Harbour, Auckland and Waikato. The regional Go4Gold tournaments are part of the process to select a New Zealand Women's 7's team.

The next four years will see New Zealand Women's 7's team, compete on an IRB International circuit, where the clear focus will be Gold in Rio.

The Bay has a strong connection to the Women's 7's development programme, with 2011 Steamers Head Coach Sean Horan, being appointed the inaugural New Zealand Women's 7's Head Coach. The serious desire to win Women 7's Gold in Rio, has seen High Performance Sport New Zealand invest funding in the appointment of the full time Head Coach, along with 14 regional 7's resource coaches.

With Bay of Plenty to the fore front of the Men's 7's game, notably through Sevens iconic coach Gordon Tietjens – we can expect to see plenty of attention paid to the Women's 7's game in the Bay in the next four years.

Seeya at the Game