Nicholson to go it alone

Andrew Nicholson says winning for New Zealand is ‘‘quite something’’.

But it’s also something of the past for the distinguished eventing rider, who was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to equestrian sport in the Queen’s Birthday 2018 Honours List.

The English-based horseman has represented New Zealand for more than 30 years, but didn’t compete at the 2016 Rio Olympics after pulling out of Equestrian New Zealand’s high performance squad.

‘‘I think my days of being in the team competition are probably gone – too much has gone on now and I’m quite happy going along the way I’m going,’’ Nicholson told stuff.

That means he’s highly unlikely to feature at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics – despite still being a world-class performer who won the prestigious Badminton title last year on his veteran mount Nereo.

The 56-year-old had competed at six Olympic Games before missing Rio. He was part of the silver medal-winning eventing team at the 1992 Barcelona Games and won bronze in the teams event in 1996 and 2012. Nicholson won gold in the NZ team at the 1990 World Equestrian Games, and bronze in the individual and team categories in 2010. Between 1995 and 2017, he won nine four-star events and has mentored and trained a number of world-class Kiwi and international riders.

‘‘It’s a great honour, isn’t it?’’ he said of the ONZM.

‘‘I’ve been very lucky to represent my country at all sorts of levels and I’ve always been very proud to represent them. To then get recognised for doing something which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed doing – it’s been an honour and a privilege to do what I’m doing – it’s an absolute bonus.

‘‘To win a competition and have the national anthem played for you is quite something – it doesn’t matter how often you do it.’’ Nicholson said he had a ‘‘a whole stack’’ of people to thank.

‘‘From the family who first took me in when I first came over, the Powell family, when I was only 18 – along to my wife and family at the moment; it’s been a major part of it all, having the support crew there for the bad days as well as the good days.

Nicholson broke his neck after a fall from a mount in 2015, but returned to riding when fit again and doesn’t plan to give it up yet.

‘‘Most sportspeople will tell you that if you feel like you can do it, you’ve got to keep doing it until something will tell you that you can’t do it anymore,’’ he said.

‘‘I was probably very lucky at the time – I had some very good horses to take over when I started back again – that’s what pretty much focused me on getting back.

‘‘I’ve wound it down a bit – I don’t have so many horses but I’ve still got some good horses and while I do, I’ll keep going along and choose the events I want to do. I don’t want to travel as much as I used to – I like to pace myself a little bit.’’ Two-time Halberg award winner Kirsten Hellier is included in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List after mentoring the likes of Dame Valerie Adams to tremendous success during her illustrious shot put career.

Hellier moved into coaching after thriving in javelin – her career included the highlight of taking silver at the 1994 Commonwealth Games – before working closely with New Zealand’s throwing athletes competing from world junior championships right through to the Olympics.

She was the first Kiwi woman to throw the javelin 50 metres and then 60m, and was national champion in 1987, then from 1989-95, and again in 1999. Her personal best is 62.52m.

Hellier has since passed on her skills in the field to some of New Zealand’s (and China’s) brightest athletics stars and twice won coach of the year at the Halberg Awards, in 2007 and 2008, for coaching Adams to gold medals in the women’s shot put at the Osaka World Championships and Beijing Olympics respectively.

Speaking from her home in Auckland, Hellier was ‘‘totally overwhelmed’’ on being made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM). She thanked her family and the nominators, and said she was blessed to be working as an athletics coach.

‘‘It’s a little bit surreal but I’m loving the high performance environment and developing young athletes.’’

In September, the 48-year-old joined Athletics NZ as high performance programme coach for throwing events and has been coaching 2016 Olympic men’s shot put finalist Jacko Gill.

Hellier, who was born in Tokoroa, twice competed at the Commonwealth Games, in Auckland (1990) and Victoria (1994), either side of throwing at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.

She was Adams’ coach for 12 years until their split in 2010.

With Hellier, Adams won gold medals at the Commonwealth (2006, 2010) and Olympic Games (2008), and world indoor (2008, 2010) and outdoor championships (2007, 2009).

A stint as throwing coach for the Chinese Athletics Association followed through to the 2012 London Olympics.

‘‘It was an incredibly challenging time because it was very quickly after Val and I had parted company,’’ Hellier said.

‘‘But the reality was that I needed an income [but] it was still an amazing experience.’’

Hellier said helping the best Kiwi throwers realise their potential was what she aimed for.