Athletics: Race walker gains from the high life

By EUGENE BINGHAM

Craig Barrett has been going higher to get faster.

The 50km walker has prepared for his second Olympic race next week by spending time at altitude in the Pyrenees, France.

For three weeks he trained with 25 other walkers at a camp 1850m above sea level.

At home in New Zealand, he gets exposure to altitude by hanging out in National Park, staying at an alpine ski lodge hut for $6 a night at 1600m.

It's at the limit of where altitude gives a benefit, but it's cheaper than spending too much time in Europe.

As one of the seasoned campaigners of New Zealand's biggest squad of endurance athletes since the 1984 Olympics, Barrett has the experience to know how to prepare himself for a major event.

He knows that spending time in the thin air increases the efficiency of his oxygen-carrying blood cells.

In the Pyrenees, he also enjoyed the opportunity to train with other international race walkers.

He enjoys the friendliness of the sport, saying it is the only athletics event where opponents cooperate so closely.

"If you go to a track, you'll see a pile of blue tracksuits, a pile of red or orange tracksuits. The pile of mixed tracksuits? That's the walkers'," he said.

"This morning I was out training and Guatemala was out there too and their coach was giving me drinks."

Barrett has been careful about hydration in Athens, especially after the lesson he learned at the Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games, when he passed out while zeroing in on the gold medal.

He has also been looking closely at his technique, having been disqualified from a few recent races.


Barrett, 32, won the Commonwealth Games silver medal in 2002, and came 18th in Sydney four years ago.

He is one of four long-distance athletes in the team, joining marathon runners Jonathan Wyatt, Dale Warrander and Liza Hunter-Galvan.

Team coach Graham Tattersall said that the dominance of endurance athletes in the team was a sign that high-performance investment was paying dividends.

One of the highlights of the athletics programme will be the marathon.

The women's race is on Sunday and the men's next Sunday.

Hunter-Galvan said she could not wait to run into the Panathinaiko Stadium with its marble stands.

"It's going to be amazing," said the first-time Olympian and mother of four.