KEY POINTS:
A renaissance in New Zealand women's running is on the horizon.
It's been decades since the country had so many women competing at the top level in international distance running - Nina Rillstone is fast-catching leaders in the marathon, Kimberley Smith is whittling away her national records on the track, inching ever-closer to the front of the fields, and world mountain running champion Kate McIlroy has made great strides in her switch to the steeplechase.
Although they still have a way to go to match the achievements of Lorraine Moller, Allison Roe and Anne Audain, there are promising signs that Kiwi women are running to the top again.
Since the halcyon days of Peter Snell, Murray Halberg, Barry Magee and, later, John Walker, Dick Quax and Rod Dixon, it's women who've been waving the New Zealand athletics flag.
Moller is the last New Zealand athlete to have won an Olympic medal (a marathon bronze in Barcelona), and Beatrice Faumuina and Valerie Vili have snatched medals at world championships. Commonwealth Games gold medallist Nick Willis is the lone male contender looking to break through to the top of the international level.
The trio of Smith, Rillstone and McIlroy are poised to turn promise into success.
Though McIlroy has had to withdraw from this month's world championships in Osaka because of injury, Rillstone and Smith will line up in record-breaking form.
After a disappointing, injury-ridden 2006, Smith has been running hot this year, breaking three national records.
Last month, the shy, blond-haired, Papakura-raised 25-year-old smashed 10 seconds off Audain's 8m 45.53s 3000m record in Monaco, and lowered her own 5000m record to 14m 49.41s in Rome. In April, she trimmed half a second off her 10,000m record.
It all bodes well for Osaka where she hopes for a top-eight finish in the 10,000m.
After graduating from her US college, Providence, she has remained in the US, based in Rhode Island near coach Ray Treacy.
She told runnersworld.com this year that she was fitter than ever and hoped to concentrate on the 10,000m for Beijing next year before switching to the marathon.
