The weather was looking a little ominous on Saturday morning, but right on cue, the Catlins turned on a pearler and we set the front markers of the 66km Niagara Falls Café Handicap race off into the sunshine and calm and relatively balmy temperatures. 

Eddie Dawkins was out mowing the lawns when he found out he was an Olympian; Natasha Hansen was a bundle of nerves wondering whether she'd done enough.

Few people would have marked a young Eddie Dawkins down as a future Olympian during his early days at Kew Bowl writes The Southland Times' Nathan Burdon.