Will Adams, Willis go on?
Athletics NZ hoping star duo will be still be motivated to go for gold at Tokyo in 2020, as Marc Hinton reports.
Athletics New Zealand is looking to ride the success of Rio all the way to Tokyo, with the sport’s bosses not giving up hope they might have both Valerie Adams and Nick Willis on board to lead the way for their fifth Olympics.
Of the veteran pair − Adams is 31 and Willis 33 − Adams is the more unlikely to make it through to Tokyo in 2020 after a problematic second half of the Rio cycle where she had five surgeries and a number of tough rehabs just to make it to her fourth Games.
Adams was on the record before Rio as suggesting the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in 2018 might be the perfect way to conclude her storied shot put career that has yielded four world championships, two Olympic golds and now that silver medal from Rio.
Willis, who picked up an unexpected bronze medal in Rio to go with the silver he secured in Beijing in 2008, is still at the top of his game, seems strongly motivated, is making a solid living from the sport and gave no indications in Rio he’s looking to wind his career down just yet.
He did say a move up to the 5000m might be on the cards should he go through to Tokyo, but felt while he still had the speed that he exhibited so vividly, and successfully, in Rio, he should continue to race the shorter distance. His times remain world-class for the 1500m, where he has broken 3:30 twice since 2014.
With the likes of Eliza McCartney, Tom Walsh, Jacko Gill and one or two others, Athletics NZ feels like it has a strong wave of world-class young performers coming through.
But it would love for its hugely respected pair to go one more cycle.
‘‘I had a good sitdown with Valerie just before she left the village,’’ said Athletics NZ high performance director Scott Goodman, who stepped in to help with Adams’ Rio campaign when coach Jean-Pierre Egger was a late defection. ‘‘She’s married now, and she would like to have a family.
‘‘But she’s even talking about if it unfolds that way she might look at starting as soon as she can and see how she goes competing as a mother. If that’s the case, I don’t think she’s talking about finishing her career, whereas 12 months ago it was if she could get through to Rio with all the problems she had with injuries and training with pain.
‘‘The last three or