KEY POINTS:
A casual observer of the line-up in the Olympic 10,000m final early tomorrow morning might think New Zealand's Kimberley Smith is a dead-set for a medal.
After all, she has the second-fastest time of 2008, a blistering 30m 35.54s run in the United States in May.
If only it was as easy as it looks on paper. The 27-year-old from Papakura will have to run the race of her life to reach the podium in Beijing's sapping heat at 2.25am NZ time.
Still, with a fifth placing in similar conditions at the world championships in Osaka last year, she has proved she is capable of performing well in the humidity and against the best in the world.
That world championship result left her with a belief, but also an understanding that when it came to the crunch she had more work to do. With one lap to go, she was in for a chance of bronze, but did not have the speed in the end to make it. That realisation has fired her in her training sessions for the past year.
Her opponents in the field of 32 include the woman who beat her in May, Shalane Flanagan of the United States, as well as Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba, one of the best athletes women's distance running has seen and a three-time winner of the 10,000m world championship crown.
One of Dibaba's strongest rivals will be her sister, Ejegayehu, who won silver in Athens and has been a close runner-up to Tirunesh twice this year. Of the trio of Ethiopian challengers, Mestawet Tufa has the fastest time this year, 30m 38.33s. Smith will have to run her own race, but also cover the tactical moves of the Ethiopians if she wants to prevent them from clean-sweeping the medals.
Athletics team manager Raylene Bates said yesterday that Smith had settled into the village after completing her acclimatisation training in Hong Kong. "She has been training here in the village and she's raring to go," said Bates.
Other Kiwis in action on the first day of athletics are Nick Willis, who will compete in the first of four heats of the 1500m, Beatrice Faumuina in the qualifying round of the discus and heptathlete Rebecca Wardell. The team's best hope, Valerie Vili, has her qualifying and final rounds tomorrow.
