Ominous signs for New Zealand’s outstanding sprinting talents
Athletics New Zealand (ANZ) has no immediate plans to review its under-fire selection criteria for the Commonwealth Games.
That’s despite outstanding Kiwi sprint talent Tiaan Whelpton admitting to having pondered if he’s wasting his time sticking with the sport, and the coach of New Zealand’s fastest man in history – Eddie Osei-Nketia – demanding administrators do so.
Gary Henley-Smith, OseiNketia’s coach, made the call after the men’s 100m final at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, won by Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala in 10.02sec.
Henley-Smith believes OseiNketia, who ran 10.08sec and broke his father’s long-standing national record at the world championships in Oregon last month, would have medalled on a day South African Akani Simbine snared silver in 10.13sec.
However, ANZ high performance director Scott Newman doesn’t buy it.
‘‘You just simply can’t say that’s a personal-best time, so he would have finished there. The athlete has to be there on the day, and competing and running those times on that specific day at that event,’’ Newman said.
‘‘Heading back to the world champions there with Eddie. On that basis, his 10.08sec, if he had been able to run that in the second round he would have got through. Unfortunately, he couldn’t back that up [10.29sec].’’
Needing to run one A standard (10.07sec) or two B standards (10.12sec) by the end of May to crack ANZ’s team for the Games, Osei-Nketia’s New Zealandrecord and second B mark was too little, too late.
Allocated 18 quota places for individual able-bodied athletes by the New Zealand Olympic Com
mittee (NZOC), ANZ sent 17 athletes to Birmingham.
‘‘They should be doing everything they possibly can to send as many of us as possible, yet they didn’t even bother to use up the minimal 18 slots they gave us. It’s almost a slap in the face, you put in so much effort, and it feels like they don’t put in any,’’ Christchurch-based sprinter Whelpton said.
Like Osei-Nketia, Whelpton didn’t meet the standards for Birmingham, but has run fast enough this year to meet the marks set ahead of the London 2012 Olympics (10.18sec A standard and 10.24 B standard).
‘‘They keep increasing the standards and making them harder and harder every year. Yet this doesn’t reflect at all in the amount of help athletes are receiving,’’ he said.
‘‘This is the main reason I believe our sport is slowly dying – standards are getting harder and harder, looking near unreachable, and not enough is being done to help the athletes get there. So, people either give up or don’t bother.’’
Newman conceded the standards – based on top-six capability – were ‘‘incredibly tough’’, but could not promise change.
‘‘It’s quite statistical, and it’s based on real athletes’ performances, and that’s just where the numbers lie.’’