Athletics: Sprint for Olympics in Japan

Tauranga sprinters Joseph Millar and Kodi Harman were battling injury as they left New Zealand yesterday bound for Japan and a late assault on running a 4x100m relay Olympic qualifying time.

Japan's Athletics Association has invited and paid for the New Zealand and Australia relay teams to race in this weekend's Golden Grand Prix in Kawasaki, round three of the IAAF World Challenge, in a bid to confirm their qualification for the Olympics.

Only the top 16 nations in the world, as of July 2, will get to London, with Japan sitting in 10th spot with a best time of 38.66sec set at last year's world champs in Daegu, South Korea.

New Zealand are unranked, with this weekend's meet and tomorrow's (Japan time) 28th Shizuoka International meet in Shizuoka their best chance of positing quick times. For qualification times to be valid, a minimum of three international teams must compete in the race, hence Australia and New Zealand's invite.

Millar, New Zealand's fastest man over 100m and 200m and the Australian 200m champion, said they'd need to run around 38.9sec to force their way into the top 16.

China have a hold on the last qualifying spot with a cumulative 78.02sec - 38.87 and 39.15 - while Jamaica will go to London as the No 1-ranked nation after a world record 37.04 at the world champs.

Millar has been having treatment on a dodgy hamstring, as has Harman, and said inching under 39 seconds would be a big ask.

"That's flying for us and we'll need perfect conditions and a perfect race with no mistakes to get close to it."

Millar can crack the 10sec barrier from a flying start but will need his teammates to get on board the express train as well.

Millar and Harman will be joined by Andy Kruy (Palmerston North), Tama Toki (Auckland), Isaac Tatoa (Auckland) and Carl Van der Speck (Auckland, now based in Sydney) in the relay set-up, with the four best on the day taking the start line.

New Zealand's last relay in Australia failed to crack 40sec and Harman admits 38.9sec will be a stretch. "We should smash 40sec because last time none of us had peaked but sub-39sec is pretty quick. If we all run PBs or quicker then we might get lucky but if not, it's going to be hard."