After four years of hard graft in the professional boxing ranks, Joseph Parker will finally fight for the heavyweight championship of the world - just 25 minutes from his family home.

When Joseph Parker crushed Alexander Dimitrenko with a bodyshot halfway through the third round of their October 10 fight this year, a new side to the normally relaxed and composed athlete was revealed.

After slapping the towering German about the ring, dropping him time after time, only to

Summer reading suggestions for TV nerds
Get the jump on the best new TV shows due to come out soon by reading the juicy books they’re based on.

Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev Jim Jones and His People by Tim Reiterman
In 1978, 909 followers of cult leader Jim Jones committed mass suicide in the socialist commune they’d established in Guyana. Followers had been starved, some were drugged or subjected to beatings and mind control techniques,

Tauranga born and bred, Mike Dawson travels the world on the slalom canoe circuit. Recently having returned from Rio, where he placed 10th in the K1 Slalom, we caught up with him on his own turf – Wero Whitewater Park.

How did you come to canoing? How fit do you need to be to be a slalom canoeist? What’s the training regime like?

I grew up in Tauranga so naturally spent a lot of time around the water. When I went to Tauranga Boys’ College I joined the whitewater kayaking team, who took me to all the national competitions. From there I discovered that Canoe Slalom was an Olympic sport and set my sights on competing for NZ at the Games & traveling and competing internationally. Fitness is a huge part of Canoe Slalom as it a 100 second maxium effort. The training regime is intense. Usually I’m on the water twice per day &

Earlier this year, over the course of three months, reporter Don Rowe trailed New Zealand boxer Joseph Parker as he ground away at his dream of becoming world heavyweight champion. Rowe attended training sessions, press events and two fights, and spent time with Parker’s family to gather material for what would become a 16-page cover story for the new issue of 1972. We asked him about that journey.

1972: It's pretty rare to be granted loads of access to elite sportspeople.

It can’t be easy captaining the NZ Warriors, especially this season, but Ryan Hoffman is getting stuck in. A veteran with 11 seasons under his belt for the Melbourne Storm, including two grand final wins, Hoffman is known as a strong personality and a hard worker, with a great attitude to the game. We caught up with him as he was getting suited up for a black tie event to ask how he keeps his cool.

I read that you used to take your shoes off at primary school and run

Eliza McCartney, a 19 year old from the North Shore who you may have seen on Anchor billboards, is New Zealand’s first-ever pole vaulting Olympian, and an impressive one at that.

She stormed the world stage for the first time this year, breaking into the top 10 world rankings. Ahead of her qualifying event (on Wednesday August 17, 12:45am NZT), here are some key points to keep in mind.

Pole Vaulting's not just for sport
Before it became a track