Walking: Disciplined Barrett walks into unknown

By EUGENE BINGHAM

Craig Barrett is a walking experiment.

He is about to race in the Olympic 50km walk, but has no idea what his training programme for the next two weeks will be.

And he has just returned to sea level after the longest spell of altitude training in his life.

The Waikato walker has put his whole career in the hands of a coach he can't talk to.

Just over a year ago, the 28-year-old dumped his coach of five years and began working with Kui Wang, a former Chinese national walk coach.

The pair communicate through an interpreter and training programmes for the days ahead come scrawled on a piece of paper.

"I honestly don't know what I'll be doing for the next few weeks," Barrett said yesterday.

"I've never led up to a major race with Kui Wang before."

Barrett flew into Sydney direct from the United States on Monday after seven weeks of training at 2250m above sea level.

He and Wang went to Los Alamos, New Mexico, in July with every idea of how they wanted to train, but no idea where to stay.

When they arrived, all the rental accommodation had burned down in Los Alamos' devastating bush fire. Luckily, a real estate woman and her family took pity on the Olympian.

"I flashed my puppy dog eyes and she let us stay with her - it was amazing."

He believes the time in Los Alamos has paid off, and found during a lone 12km session around a suburban Sydney athletic track yesterday that he was able to walk more efficiently, striding 20 sec per kilometre faster while maintaining his normal training heart rate.

Wang has radically changed Barrett's approach to training, keeping him focused on exactly what is required of each session and introducing mind games such as cold water plunges to give him the mental toughness required of a top walker.

He has taught Barrett to think of walking as a discipline, not a sport.

"Each session under Kui has been a lot more regimented," said Barrett.

"Kui has also strengthened my willpower, forcing me to do little things. Today, for instance, I was wearing a tracksuit rather than a singlet and shorts. It's just a little more uncomfortable."

Wang also insists on Barrett walking laps every session on nothing bigger than a 2km circuit.

Barrett said his decision to switch coaches last year was the toughest choice he has ever made. He won't judge how successful it has been until after the Olympics. "I'll let my results decide."

He was working under long-time tutor Graeme Seatter when Wang approached him in 1997. Initially, the offer was for Barrett to move to China. He declined. Then Wang joined his son and daughter-in-law in New Zealand and approached Barrett again.

"In the end it was just an instinct that it was the right thing to do. For me to take the next step up, I needed a fulltime coach."

Wang has steered Barrett away from racing 50km this year, leaving the world guessing about his progress since an eighth placing at the world championships last year.

This will be Barrett's second Olympic 50km walk - he finished 33rd of 51 in Atlanta. At the 1998 Commonwealth Games Kuala Lumpur, he collapsed of dehydration while leading the race in sight of the finish line.

This time, he hopes to give New Zealand another, more glorious, image of himself. Ultimately, he would love to emulate the effort of Kiwi Norman Read, gold medal winner in the 50km at Melbourne in 1956.

Barrett believes there are more parallels than just the fact these Games are in Australia too.

"When [Read] went into the race, the Russians were totally dominant and he was a bit of an unknown but he just went out there and kicked their arse.

"Well, the Russians are dominating the world rankings again this year ... "