Sprinting isn’t a sport New Zealand is usually renowned for – but are recent results on the track changing that?
Last weekend at the Australian National Championships, New Zealanders cleaned up in the sprint events, with all that success coached by one man and led by a world championship hopeful.
Zoe Hobbs has been setting a blistering pace of late, having set a new 60m Oceania record at the World Indoor Championships before setting her sights on Sydney.
Hobbs told 1News she always likes to be moving.
“I actually enjoy turning up everyday,” Hobbs said.
“I'm on day three of a break now and I'm going a little bit crazy and I want to be back.”
But Hobbs has been told by her handlers to rest after winning the Aussie 100m title last weekend.
Her teammates cleaned up in the longer races as well with Georgia Hulls taking the 200m gold and Isabel Neal topping the podium in 400m.
To top it all off, Hobbs and Hulls were joined by Rosie Elliot and Livvy Wilson in the 4x100m relay where they set a New Zealand record time of 44.06 – which also happened to win them that race too.
“To be honest, I was feeling fast but we hadn't primed for that sort of event,” Hobbs said.
The “awesome foursome” as they’ve been since dubbed just happen to be coached by the same man too – former Commonwealth Games sprinter James Mortimer.
“We've got a great group of girls [who feed off each other],” Mortimer said.
“But it's also about putting the right training to the right body structure and making sure they enjoy it because it's a very repetitive sport.”
Hobbs has qualified for the World Championships in July, but not the Commonwealth Games as of yet.
So what is keeping Hobbs out? The Commonwealth Games’ 11.10 seconds standard - a time that would've won gold four years ago.
Mortimer saw both sides of the argument around whether the new benchmark was fair.
“I think it's on that Olympic standard now because of the Caribbean sprinters,” he said.
“The Australians are good and the South Africans are very good too.”
Still, Hobbs is expected to hit the mark for Birmingham and become a medal chance.
“I would love to see sprinting put on the map in New Zealand and to have more youth joining the sport,” she said.
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