Athletics: Hellier firms up Chinese position

Kirsten Hellier. Photo / Kenny Rodger.

She has mastered 'Ni Hao' (hello) and 'Xie Xie' (thanks) but Kirsten Hellier's Mandarin language abilities are about to be stretched to a whole new level.

After weeks of negotiations, the former coach of Valerie Adams has firmed her leading role in China's shot put programme, ahead of the 2012 Olympics in London.

Her main focus will be on their No 2-ranked shot putter Li Ling, who is set to train in New Zealand for up to four months of the year. Ling and Hellier combined for four months before the Asian Games, where the 25-year-old won gold with 19.94m, smashing her personal best of 19.38m.

Hellier also has an "informal arrangement" with Chinese No 1 Gong Lijiao and her coach and is likely to assist with training programmes for some of the younger athletes.

In the longer term, she hopes to be involved with talent identification, an "extremely exciting" prospect given their "massive pool" of talent.

She will keep an apartment in Dalian and plans to go to China six to eight times a year, spending over four months in the Middle Kingdom. Dalian has been called the 'Hong Kong of northern China' and the port city, 1000km northeast of Beijing, is home to over six million people. It has previously been voted the most liveable city in China and one Chinese government website even compared it to San Francisco or Seattle.

Nevertheless, it is a best of both worlds for Hellier, as her family can visit for extended periods while Ling will get valuable time in New Zealand.

"She has huge potential," says Hellier. "I want to see her consistently throwing at 20m next year, then anything is possible in London. So far we have only had a few months together and I am looking forward to going through a full training cycle of a year."

Apart from huge deficiencies in Ling's previous prescribed training programme, Hellier was also a little surprised by the lack of attention to the mental side of the game.

"Positive reinforcement is huge in this sport," says Hellier. "It is about giving people the right mentality, the confidence in their ability and getting them feeling good about themselves. She has really come out of her shell in the last few months."

Ling will be based in Auckland in February, March and April next year and a few weeks in June. At this stage, it is unknown whether Ling and Adams will get the chance to compete against each other in domestic events here.

Ling and her Chinese minder are expected to cater for themselves in a local motel, a big change from state training institutions and canteens.