Cam Avery is a 3:53 (1500), 8:06, 14:00, 29:14, 1:02:50 runner, and I think 13:59 or similar indoors. Very good for a working man, but I'm surprised NZ does not have guys in the 1:01:00-1:02:00 range. I think Ireland is now stronger than NZ in distance running. Ireland have plenty of sub 14:00/29:00 runners -NZ very few.
Not a diss, just observing. Go Kiwis!
I agree about some of the things that were mentioned about Jake's character but let's not ignore the fact that he would have been the best representative for New Zealand in the half marathon so sometimes in sports or often in sports performance trumps personal qualities.
The American college system, along with declining birth rates, anti running policies from local government is the reason for this decline. NZ are weak in the longer distances but let's get facts straight Ghost the NZ Athletics team is far stronger than Ireland's. 4 athletes are Olympic/World outlier medal contenders Walsh, Gill, Eliza Mac and Hamish Kerr. Zoe is running 10.9s and unlike the Jamaican & Americans, she isn't juiced up to her eyeballs. Tanner is slowly improving. Really NZ's best distance runner is triathlete Hayden Wilde.
Ghost's comparison was in relation to sub 14:00/29:00, not sprinters and field-eventers.
I've got enough running friends in or from New Zealand that I pay a fair amount of attention to what goes on there. None of them ever have much good to say about ANZ. But in this case I don't see how they're the bad guys because they didn't select a guy for a team who never told them he wanted to be in it.
As I wrote earlier if there was regular, clear communication between ANZ and their top athletes about selection criteria, cut off dates, paperwork etc this wouldn’t have been a problem. Jake has stated that he clearly wanted to be part of the team and was hugely disappointed he wasn’t selected. This points directly to a lack of transparency and communication between ANZ and the athlete. Again, Jake is light years ahead of the next best NZ half marathon runner. I would have expected ANZ to have been very surprised when the cut off dates were fast approaching and their top athlete hadn’t entered and to have at least reached out to him.
This is second hand so I'm not going to swear to it, but it comes from a friend there who is very well connected and who I've found very reliable. He told me that one of the selectors had been in touch with Jake. But let's say that didn't happen and let's pretend you're in Jake's position, i.e., you know this event is coming up, you really want to run it, and the first step is to tell ANZ that you want to run it. But you don't. What possible reason could you have for not doing so?
Great Dane : You seem to rubbish AthleticsNZ with some vitriol. What did the organisation do to you or any athletes in New Zealand you Coach. I would be most interested to know any details you have.
They haven’t done anything to myself or any athletes I coach personally but I very much believe in the fair and equal treatment of all top athletes that have worked their asses off in a sport that has very little financial compensation. ANZ seems to have some favourite athletes of theirs which they help and support as much as possible and others who are maybe a bit more difficult to deal with that they almost totally ignore. You only need to look at their social media pages to see who they like to give the most spotlight to. In Jake’s case, he’s run two fantastic half marathons over the last few months, both just a tad over the 1hr mark, which are light years ahead of any other current NZ runner for the distance and yet absolutely no mention or form of congratulations by ANZ.
This post was edited 54 seconds after it was posted.
Great Dane : You seem to rubbish AthleticsNZ with some vitriol. What did the organisation do to you or any athletes in New Zealand you Coach. I would be most interested to know any details you have.
They haven’t done anything to myself or any athletes I coach personally but I very much believe in the fair and equal treatment of all top athletes that have worked their asses off in a sport that has very little financial compensation. ANZ seems to have some favourite athletes of theirs which they help and support as much as possible and others who are maybe a bit more difficult to deal with that they almost totally ignore. You only need to look at their social media pages to see who they like to give the most spotlight to. In Jake’s case, he’s run two fantastic half marathons over the last few months, both just a tad over the 1hr mark, which are light years ahead of any other current NZ runner for the distance and yet absolutely no mention or form of congratulations by ANZ.
Firstly, I really wonder if you have extensive background in the Sport in New Zealand from Grass roots up. I have no problem with your views on "Fairness" and "Equality" but the Sport does extremely well overall and money AthleticsNZ allocates to Top athletes actually comes from High Performance Sport NZ. If those athletes don't perform at Olympic Games (MEDALS !!!!!) ... FUNDING DROPS or disappears .... Ask our top Women Hockey players from a few years ago !!! I have had close relative dropped from one highly funded Sport (not this one) for a year for no reasonable explanation but then picked up a year or so later for an Olympic Berth. No one screamed and yelled for that year !!!!. The Robertson's have had a share of that HP money and have done well from it. To say that Social Media here favours certain athletes is totally unfair. But I will say that the crew selected for that World Champs Half , whilst not having run as fast as Jake, all work normal everyday jobs for 8 to 10 hours a day and they too, TRAIN their butts off and pay their way to events .. just like they will do this World Champs. I could say a lot more about a lot of other "stuff" around these issues, which if you lived and Coached here you would have a handle on.
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