Our record books for distance running are history books to the best runners of the past

The best running team ever to leave New Zealand: New Zealand was once awash with running talent

"I"d describe nz athletics talent over the last few decades as a basket of eggs being thrown at a wall...

the few that didnt break went on to greatness.

As a teenager in the eighties can name various runners around my age who totally dominated their events for years , they would race ahead of the rest of the field from start to finish.

Ever heard of richard potts?  Phil Staar? Neil Secker? Andrea Wade? Julia Macgregor?  Simon Yock?

They were standouts in distance running,  few were successful at senior level. most disappeared from the running scene by the time they were seniors..

Phill Staar was the fastest junior mens white cross country runner in the world, seventh overall...

Nick willis is the exception rather than the rule. a successful Junior who came through the american college scholarship system not burnt out.  who knows how many of our athletes have had scholarships and failed to be competitive once they became seniors....

There is no system in nz to ensure we can hold onto the talent we have, to try and prevent them from quitting sport or burning out.

Very little of our best junior talent has survived to senior level.... so i would say very few of our coaches know how to develop talent in a sustainable way.

Needless to say our record books for distance running are mainly also history books to the best runners of the past..

There was little point spending money on synthetic tracks, our junior athletes probably struggle to find the energy or enthusiasm to train properly after they have spent so much time working to pay for their education and afford to live in our expensive cities, sure its not necessarily an excuse but it is a factor...  students worry a lot about their student loans. and it is a distraction if you're an athlete...

I'd argue young athletes today dont have enough patience to do the volume of aerobic training required to be their best....  too many distractions, or they are cutting the duration and upping the tempo too much instead, kids are used to staring at tv or computers for long hours for stimulation, they struggle more to really find stimulation putting in the hours away from that stimulation to train properly few coaches really understand how to develop them properly...

I saw the start of multiple tv channels in auckland and the start of personal computers and internet, i saw how it affected people... most of my fellow students at tech were more interested in computer games than their studies or exercising.  Sport for most people now is about watching it and criticising it...

athletics nz may have completly squandered our future athletics talent for good, looking at their history, its pretty much guaranteed. there's no Arthurs in NZ now. could Arthur have been able to do what he did in 2012?  probably to a lesser extent with the greater complexity of society."

Wayne Clark
________________________
Gary:
Here is a report I submitted to the NZ Government several years ago when the Prime Minister's Scholarship underwent it first review.  It was investigated and and then completely fobbed off.  Most of it is still quite relevant.  Are we slow to learn? And is there a reluctance to listen to people who are not within the hallowed inner circle?

Prime Minister Scholarship

_______________________________________

About this website

The advice in these articles is given freely without promise or obligation.  Its all about giving you and your family the tools and information to take control of your health and fitness.

Lorraine Moller included in inaugural Colorado Running Hall of Fame class

New Zealand runner, Lorraine Moller, has been named in the first class of inductees for the Colorado Running Hall of Fame.
Moller, a four-time Olympian from New Zealand who won a bronze medal in the marathon at the 1992 Olympics will be inducted, along with six others at a reception May 18 in conjunction with the Colorado Colfax Marathon, which will be run two days later.

Other inductees include:

Pat Porter who won eight straight U.S. cross country titles.

Frank Shorter, gold medalist in the 1972 Olympic marathon and silver medalist in 1976, an adviser for the Bolder Boulder and the first chairman of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

Joe Vigil, who coached for three decades at Adams State, producing 14 national championships and 425 All-Americans. Vigil also coached Deena Kastor to a bronze medal in the marathon at the 2004 Olympics.

Colleen De Reuck, a four-time Olympian who won the U.S. women's marathon Olympic trials at age 40 in 2004 and won a bronze medal at the 2002 world cross country championships.

Jon Sinclair, a former Colorado State runner who dominated American road racing in the early 1980s.

Ted Castaneda, a University of Colorado runner of the 1970s and longtime Colorado College coach whose record for the mile in Colorado (4 minutes, 4.86 seconds) has stood for 41 years.
_________________________________
Gary Moller comments:
It is great to see our sports people gaining due recognition overseas. It is a shame that they have to leave our shore to ply our trade, I still think we could do more to honour them and we could do a lot more to stop losing them for good. In Lorraine's case, it begs the question: "Why isn't she in our (New Zealand) sporting hall of fame?"

Have a read of my Prime Minister's Scholarship discussion document which offers some practical and affordable way to stem the drain of our sporting talent and honouring them as well (Page 9 onwards deals with solutions).