Athletics: Adams coach coming here

Valerie Adams. Photo / Getty Images

Valerie Adams' Swiss coach will relocate to New Zealand for a period next year - partly to ease the burden on her as she builds towards defending her Olympic title in London.

In the week when it was announced that Adams has made the short list for the World Athlete of the Year, it has also been confirmed that Jean-Pierre Egger will be based in Auckland over our summer.

"The distance is big and it is not so easy for her," Egger told the Herald on Sunday."For that reason, I will come for two months in January and February in Auckland so she doesn't have to come [so] long to Europe."

Adams began her partnership with Egger late last year, after splitting from former coach Didier Poppe. It has required Adams' spending months this year based in a small Swiss village near Macolin, living at a spartan training academy which is home to many athletes within the Swiss Olympic programme.

She has enjoyed a stellar 2011, going undefeated in competition and taking out the world championships by a record margin (1.19m). It has shown that the ends justified the means but the strain of separation has been obvious at times.

"When she first asked to come to Switzerland, I said no - it's not a good idea," says Egger. "I told her you will lose your friends and be very far from your family. And I know sometimes this problem exists for Valerie."

Egger describes seeing Adams come to training in the morning sometimes with "tears in her eyes", after she had been talking to her family back home during the night.

"The first couple of months in Switzerland were pretty hard," Adams told the Herald on Sunday earlier this year. "I am pretty tight with my family - especially my nieces and nephews - so it is always pretty tough."

As well as giving Adams some additional time with her family, Egger's move shows the degree of importance he is attaching to next year. He is a coach in demand in Switzerland, involved in several programmes mainly around coach education.

Egger, who competed at the 1976 and 1980 Olympics, coached compatriot Werner Gunthor to three consecutive world championships between 1987 and 1993.

His resume also includes working with the French basketball team which claimedsilver at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the Swiss football club Grasshoppers and he was strength and conditioning coach for Alinghi during their inaugural America's Cup campaign. Egger knows this is a golden chance to coach an athlete to the top of an Olympic podium and is putting aside other responsibilities to focus on Adams.

Egger is bullish about Adam's future potential, with the only caveat being the physical toll after a decade in the sport.

"Valerie is not old [27] but she has already had 10 years of hard training behind her," says Egger. "We don't know how injuries might affect her. [However,] the most important [aspect] is her motivation," says Egger. "If Val's fire is so big like now, she can make many good results in the future. Now I think she is happy but it is also possible that she will say enough is enough and [look at] other goals in her life."

Egger's visit to New Zealand will complete a nice piece of symmetry. It will mark 10 years to the day when he was based with Alinghi, in the infamous campaign where Russell Coutts and friends claimed the Auld Mug from Team New Zealand. During that time, Egger met Adams for the first time, the 16-year-old schoolgirl being coached by Kirsten Hellier.

"After I saw her, I told Kirsten 'You have a piece of gold here - this woman can be the best in the world'."

Adams is currently taking time out in New Zealand before her training programme recommences in November. She will spend December in Switzerland then return to New Zealand, with Egger for the summer. The world indoor championships in Turkey in mid-March are the next significant marker.