ANZ accused of ‘playing games’
to be in the front early in the race under the conditions. ‘‘You just showed the others where the light spots were. We were able to pick up on that and sail around the leaders.
‘‘We did a very good team job, we worked very hard with very good skill, and we came back slowly.’’
Wislang, who won the last Volvo Ocean Race at his fourth attempt, was thrilled to get a victory in New Zealand. Dongfeng are also second to Mapfre on the main scoreboard as they prepare to leave Auckland on March 18 on the seventh leg, which takes the fleet across the Southern Ocean, around Cape Horn and up to Brazil.
They will be vastly different conditions to what they experienced yesterday in front of a large spectator fleet, but Caudrelier likes the momentum of his team.
‘‘Everyone was exhausted after the last two legs. Now we have had a good rest, the toughest part of the race is coming and this is good for the mood of the team. It’s very important for that. We have worked very hard.’’ One of Joseph Millar’s former coaches has accused Athletics New Zealand of putting up roadblocks for the Kiwi sprinter as he battled to qualify for this year’s Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.
Millar was a late addition to New Zealand’s team after he finally met the selection conditions set by the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC), who granted him an extension to run another required B standard time of 20.44sec in the 200m event.
But Paul Gamble, Millar’s coach until moving to Canada last year, said Athletics NZ had undermined the sprinter because of ‘‘ridiculous’’ differences between the two parties.
‘‘For people to be playing games because they don’t like the guy, they’re playing with his entire life,’’ Gamble said. ‘‘This is the biggest event for him outside of the Olympic Games. This is his big dream, this is all he has. He puts everything into trying to be a great sprinter. It’s ridiculous.’’
Athletics NZ high performance director Scott Goodman admitted to previous disagreements between the governing body and Millar, but said they got on pretty well.
‘‘He’s different. I’m not going to say it’s sweet all the time, but I don’t have any problems.’’
Millar, 25, hasn’t been one of New Zealand’s carded athletes, who receive support from the governing body more focused on sports science and medicine, in the last two years despite a hugely successful 2017.
He ran sprint king Usain Bolt close in Melbourne, won the 100m and 200m double in Australia and New Zealand, and broke Chris Donaldson’s 20-year New Zealand record in the 200m.
‘‘We worked with him for five years [in the carding system] and he chooses to do things his own way,’’ Goodman said. ‘‘And he’s still pretty successful.
‘‘The system didn’t match with how he was operating.’’
Millar said he felt that sprinters in New Zealand didn’t get as much support as other events.
‘‘I guess that comes down to New Zealand being viewed as a throwing and distance running country [in athletics],’’ he said.
Millar said it was a difficult and confusing process dealing with Athletics NZ and the NZOC to qualify for the Gold Coast.
He thought his personal best of 20.37sec in the 200m, set at last year’s national championships in Hamilton, was good enough to qualify for both the world championships and Commonwealth Games.
But that wasn’t the case – he needed another B standard time – and Gamble, who still works closely with Millar, said they were told that after he raced in a ‘‘black singlet event’’ in London last August.
‘‘I had qualified, but by going to the world champs, I unqualified myself [for the Commonwealth Games]. But as we understood, you can’t unqualify for something. That’s the way it was interpreted; the communication wasn’t the greatest and a few parties were confused as to what was going on,’’ Millar said.
The Commonwealth Games take place on April 4-15.