Kirsten Hellier makes it to ONZM
JOSEPH PEARSON
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.
Tokoroa-born Hellier moved into coaching after thriving in javelin - her career included taking silver at the 1994 Commonwealth Games. She then worked closely with New Zealand’s throwing athletes, from world junior championships right through to the Olympics.
She was the first Kiwi woman to the throw the javelin 50 then 60 metres, and was national champion in 1987, then from 1989-95, and again in 1999. Her personal best is 62.52m.
Hellier has been passing 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 nominations, 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,’’ the 48-year-old said.
In September, she joined Athletics NZ to become their 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 shock split in 2010 and a stint as throwing coach for the Chinese Athletics Association followed through to the 2012 London Olympics.
With Hellier, Adams won numerous gold medals at the Commonwealth (2006, 2010) and Olympic Games (2008), and world indoor (2008, 2010) and outdoor championships (2007, 2009).
‘‘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. While that was primary at the time, it was still an amazing experience.’’