Athletic excellence will be front and centre on March 7, when our best track and field stars unite for a televised live event. Mitchell Hageman, with next to no athletics experience, gets put through his paces by two NZ champions.
It was a great day to have a crook neck, sore back and be functioning on four hours of sleep.
In just a few hours, I’d be put through my paces by Olympic legend Dame Valerie Adams and 400m New Zealand record holder Lex Revell-Lewis.
As a kid, and like many Weet-Bix-eating primary schoolers, I looked up to our athletes. I was never any good at school athletics (the shot put always went dangerously close to the runners on the other side of the field), but it was always inspiring seeing the professionals push physical boundaries and do New Zealand proud on the international stage.
TVNZ’s upcoming event Track Stars is almost a crowning culmination of how far the country has come in athletic sports.
The filmed event at Auckland’s Trusts Arena will give viewers a front-row seat to the NZ Track and Field Championships, with top athletes including Hamish Kerr, Zoe Hobbs, Sam Ruthe, Tiaan Whelpton, Tom Walsh, Sam Tanner, Jacko Gill and Lex Revell-Lewis competing.
“I think it’s an opportunity to showcase the best of the best, but also globally, athletics has come quite a long way. We’re doing so well at the global stage that we need to showcase that here in Aotearoa, and it’s a good opportunity to do so,” Adams says. She’s also hosting on the day alongside Scotty Stevenson, Sarah Cowley Ross and Matt Gibb, with a few surprises in store.
“There are a few fun things lined up with celebrities doing the competition as well that evening. I think the atmosphere’s going to be fantastic.”
Those celebrities include Black Fern Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, content creator Te Aorere Pewhairangi, The Hits radio host Jono Pryor, actors Te Kohe Tuhaka and Turia Schmidt-Peke, and Silver Fern and Olympic basketball player Maia Wilson, who will all go head-to-head in running races and shot put.
So in the spirit of if you can’t beat them, join them, I jump at the chance to put my body (and self-esteem) on the line.
The Millennium Institute on the North Shore of Auckland, one of the country’s premier athletics facilities, is where my trial-by-fire takes place. Some of the country’s best sportspeople train here, and I am not one of them.
“So, Dame Val, why are we here?” I ask one of our most decorated Olympians, as she greets me with a firm handshake and warm smile.
“You’re here to try and throw a shot put, or the shot put might throw you, that’s why you’re here,” is the response. Adams says it like it is, and I love that.
“For a long time, it was just me,” Adams says, when we talk about Kiwi representation in her sport of shot put. “And then there were two of us, then there were three, and now there are multiple athletes in multiple events.
“Hopefully, that just inspires the next generation to come through if they do love the sport to stay in it, and to give it a go. If they become successful, that’s fantastic.”
Enough dilly-dallying, it’s time for me to pick up the shot put, but not without borrowing Adams’ special hand grip to give me some semblance of a chance. I nervously strap it on too early, leading The Hits Jono Pryor to remind me that my hand is turning purple.
“What do you need to be a good shot putter?” I ask my new coach. “Good looks and good talent,” she replies. I have neither of those, so hopefully my attitude will make up for it.
The shot put is like a mini cannonball in my hands, and I try to grip it with force. But Adams’ advice is to let it sit in your fingers, so I try to do that.
A lesson from Adams is like a lesson from a sensei (with a few cheeky jokes here and there). Calm, cool and collected, the champion teaches me how to correctly get my stance. I figure out pretty quickly that it’s all in the legs.
“How big was that?” I ask, after what felt to me like a pretty decent throw. Adams doesn’t want to tell me the metreage, and I don’t blame her, because it saves me the embarrassment (although I could tell it was nowhere near her 21.24m Oceania record in 2011).
Forget distance, what mattered to me in that moment was the indescribable feeling I’d gotten something off the ground, and I can see why people get hooked on athletics.
Slightly sore around the arms, there is no time to relax because it’s time to do up my laces and give the 400m a go with sprinter Lex Revell-Lewis. The runner from Avondale is taking the track by storm, breaking our domestic record and becoming a name to watch at athletics meets.
“[Running is] very tough, in terms of you’ve got to train smart. It’s very periodised,” he says. Where you can go “full out” with the 100m and 200m, Revell-Lewis says the 400m is an “awkward distance” to compete in.
“If you go out too fast, you’re going to fall over. If you go out too slow, you’re just not going to run fast,” he says. “You’ve got to pace yourself, but you’re still sprinting, then you’ve got to make sure you make it to the finish line in good time.”
He’s stoked athletics is getting the airtime it deserves with this TVNZ special, and that other kids have the opportunity to become inspired.
“Athletics is one of the most competitive sports in the world, and it’s not that big in New Zealand. So, for it to be televised live on TV at our national championships, showing the talented athletes that we have, I think it’s such an awesome idea, such an awesome event.”
We agree to Revell-Lewis giving me a 100m headstart for our race. I take my position, and completely misreading the length and forgetting his earlier advice, I sprint off the block like a bull out the gate.
My heart rate is at max and I’m actually feeling pretty good... for the first 100m. Then, with my body energy depleting and legs feeling like jelly, whoosh, Revell-Lewis races past me and leaves me in the dust.
I need some personal victory, so I speed past an elderly jogger on the final stretch. They are actually faster and fitter than me, though, so I barely beat them.
Collapsing in a heap at the finish line, I struggle to regain my breath. Revell-Lewis tells me to try to stand up to get the circulation flowing. We share a hug – it was a masterclass from him and a big lesson for me.
“Just keep dreaming big,” he says, before I hobble back to the car, albeit with a smile on my face. “I think you’ll have many people telling you why you can’t do things, and you’ve just got to push them away. Don’t stop dreaming big, and just do what you love.”
I can hardly speak to my (incredibly patient) colleague Alyse as she drives us back to the office. My neck is starting to twang, and I’ve downed about two water bottles by this point.
“Can I have Voltaren pill and gel at the same time?” I google. A trip to the pharmacy is calling.
My Track Stars experience was 100% worth it for the chance to train with some Kiwi sporting legends. But come March 7, I think I’ll be cheering from the stands
Track Stars airs live this Saturday, March 7, 7pm-9.45pm on TVNZ 1 and TVNZ+, with free general admission available for fans attending at Douglas Track & Field, Trusts Arena, Auckland.
The New Zealand Track and Field Championships take place from March 5-8, Douglas Track & Field, Trusts Arena, Auckland.
Mitchell Hageman joined the Herald’s entertainment and lifestyle team in 2024. He previously worked as a multimedia journalist for Hawke’s Bay Today.