Athletics: 'Backyard' proposal in sprinter's equation

Sir Graeme Avery and Marcus Agnew's $10 million proposal for a sports park facility appeals to the Hulls. Photo / File

Sprinter Georgia Hulls has three full American scholarship offers in the pipeline and the AUT Millennium Institute in Auckland catches the eye.

But father/coach Dean Hulls says the $10 million sports park development project Sir Graeme Avery and Marcus Agnew propose in Hastings is also in the equation.

"They're putting a lot of money into it here so it's something we have to consider," says Hulls, who coaches his daughter in athletics.

"It's a wonderful facility so Sir Graeme and Marcus have given us [another option] to look at what's best for Georgia's development."

Sir Graeme Avery last month launched his vision of what could become AUT Millennium Hawke's Bay. He was a driving force behind the Millennium Institute of Sport in Auckland, which opened in 2002.

Hull says it's an important time to embrace the challenge of preparing the 16-year-old to compete at the IAAF World U20 Championship in Poland in a fortnight.

Her target is to achieve PBs and reach the semifinals.

"To make the final of the 200 she has to do a sub-23, which only one person in New Zealand, Monique Williams, has ever done in New Zealand, so Georgia will have to do the fastest time ever."

While most Kiwi girls at the worlds are hoping to make the finals, the reality, he feels, is making the semifinals.

With the relay team qualified fifth in the world, there's a good chance they'll make the finals and the podium.

The difference, Hulls suspects, will be in the transitional phase of changing batons.

"You can make a second and a-half in each change if its smooth," he says, mindful they have the fastest group of girls the country will enter.

With the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018, timing their run with strengthening and winter programmes is crucial.

If she doesn't make that then the junior worlds will beckon in the same year although Georgia will still be eligible for the youth worlds (U18s).

No doubt Hulls is learning as well, especially after travelling with the New Zealand team this year as a mentor at the Oceania championship in Tahiti minus Georgia.

He is going as a technical coach this month to Bydgoszcz with Dennis Kale of Nelson.

Hulls and Kale will leave next week while Georgia leaves with other athletes today for two meetings in Frankfurt, Germany, and two in Lodz, Poland, before the U20 worlds.