It was clear from an early age Dame Valerie Adams was a special athlete, writes Alec McNab. Photo / Ian Cooper
A visit to the cinema served as the perfect birthday treat last Thursday.
The film 'Dame Valerie Adams: More Than Gold', which follows Dame Valerie's journey to her fifth Olympics, was an inspirational movie and one I hope many will watch - especially young athletes.
The movie shadows Dame Valerie Adams from her early competitive days right through to her bronze medal at the postponed Tokyo Olympics last year, and especially highlights her preparation for the Tokyo Games.
I was fortunate to share in a very small part of that early journey when I took a small development team to Britain and Belgium in 1999. The development group travelled to London with the team for the 1999 World University Games - also with us was the New Zealand Youth (Under 18) Team, travelling to Poland for the first World Youth Championships in Bydgoszcz.
All three groups competed in Bedford before my development group and the New Zealand Youth Team boarded the train for Edinburgh. We stayed for the best part of a week in the small town of Linlithgow and competed at the Scottish Under 20 Championships in nearby Grangemouth.
14-year-old Valerie was part of that Youth Team, which provided the South Auckland girl with her first experience travelling overseas. I still remember the ground commentator, who sounded remarkably like the famous rugby commentator Bill McLaren: "Into the circle steps big Valerie Adams - could be Jonah Lomu's sister. Yet again, she smashes the Scottish record."
Valerie went on to finish eighth in Poland, still only 14 years old in an Under 18 global event. Two years later she won the World Youth title (2002), and a year after that, the World Junior title. Her first Senior title followed in 2005, a year after her Olympic debut in Athens. This places her alongside Usain Bolt in the exclusive group of those who have won World titles in three age groups. The rest, they say, is history.
The movie illustrates that success - and especially the longevity of Dame Valerie's international career - is not just about talent and physique.
Dame Valerie was not the only New Zealand-representing Tokyo Olympian to be at their fifth Olympics; Nick Willis shared this honour. Willis was in the same New Zealand Junior Team as Adams in Kingston, Jamaica, in 2002, where he finished fourth in the 1500m. Willis is no stranger to Whanganui, as he holds the Cooks Gardens Stadium Mile Record after an epic race in 2006 and has run a record five sub-4-minute miles at Cooks Gardens. Willis also attended Young Olympian Camps in Whanganui and travelled to his first World Juniors with Whanganui athlete Tom Osborne, who had the distinction of having beaten Willis in the New Zealand Under 18s at the start of the millennium. Willis' impressive record includes Olympic medals - silver and bronze - and he is another athlete who demonstrates that success demands a level of dedication and commitment that goes beyond physique and talent.
Tuesday's club night saw the introduction of Year 7 and 8 athletes for the first time as part of the Tuesday evening programme, and it was encouraging to see almost 20 eager young athletes in action. It is hoped that this group will grow more this season - major children's championship the Colgate Games comes to Whanganui at the start of 2023. Cruz Malo has had success in previous Colgate Games, and was the first young winner in the 60m (8.57), with a win to follow in the 200m (28.57) and a good high jump later in the evening.
Nathaniel Kirk, who missed so much at the start of the year with a broken collarbone, was in good form. He impressed over his 200m (23.28) and won the 60m in 7.15 seconds to go straight to the top of the club rankings. He also ran well in his first 110m hurdles (14.80). The combined hurdles grade was won by the promising Juliet McKinlay, who ran thirty metres less (80m) in 13.83. Daniel Sinclair and his cousin James Hercus had a great battle over 800m, and Jonty Tripe set the pace with a perfect second 400m in 57 seconds. Sinclair won in a personal best of 1:58.79, with Hercus coming tantalisingly close to going under two minutes (2:00.40) in a good setup for Saturday's regional league in Hastings.
Maggie Jones had her first run of the Senior, running with the males over 60m and winning her 200m from Paige Cromarty in 26.99 seconds, the latter having won her 60m run earlier. Another having his first run of the season was Travis Bayle, back from university, who finished second to Kirk over 200m and later won over 300m. In the field, Alistair Cameron impressed in the high jump with a 1.75-metre clearance.