Athletics: Vili still struggling for acceptance

It seems reputation counts for little in the world of international athletics.

Commonwealth Games shot put champion and world championship bronze medallist Valerie Vili is struggling to break into meets in Europe over coming months.

Vili and her coach Kirsten Hellier are still awaiting invitations from meet managers, frustrating the pair and creating uncertainty over their northern hemisphere campaign.

World No 2 Vili planned to compete at the prestigious IAAF world finals at Stuttgart, Germany on September 9-10 and the World Cup in Athens a week later.

However, her place at Stuttgart was not yet confirmed as she needed to accrue points at least one more designated event -- at either Linz, Austria or Roverto, Italy -- both in August.

Officials for these meets, and others, have yet to reply to Hellier, leaving her and Vili shaking their heads at the complexity of the process.

"You have to wonder how it works sometimes. In a lot of cases, it's who you know rather than who you are," Hellier told NZPA.

"Being based at the other end of the world, I suppose you get this.

"It's just a matter of putting your name in the hat and saying the right thing at the right time."

Hellier suspected they were paying for not employing a Europe-based "athlete's representative", who could do much of the ground work but at an enormous cost.

"We don't use a representative because the nature of who we are, we just shouldn't need it," Hellier said.

"We're lucky because we have a number of contacts and we have access to the meet details and who to get hold of.

"Val and I are more than capable of getting an email off to these guys rather than pay someone ridiculous amounts of money to do it."

In January, Vili became the first Oceania woman to clear 20m and she threw 19.66m to easily win gold at the Melbourne Games in March.

Hellier said training had been progressing well since, although the chilly Auckland weather wasn't ideal preparation for Europe's summer climes.

Vili and Commonwealth Games 1500m champion Nick Willis will head a small contingent of New Zealanders to compete on the European circuit.

Willis was confirmed for three meets over the next two weeks, starting with a Grand Prix meet in Athens on Monday.

It remained unclear whether former world champion discus thrower Beatrice Faumuina would go to Europe, following a two-month stint on television entertainment show Dancing with the Stars.

Meanwhile, Athletics New Zealand (ANZ) has confirmed a direct replacement will be sought for departed high performance boss Eric Hollingsworth, who ended his contract prematurely after the Commonwealth Games last month to return to Melbourne.

ANZ chief executive Jeremy Kennerley said feelers had gone out worldwide and he hoped a replacement could be named by the end of September to hold the post through to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

- NZPA