Games a runaway success for athletes

WORLD STAGE: Former Wanganui athlete Bard Mathas (in front) is in the New Zealand team heading to the World University Games in Korea. PHOTO/FILE A-BRAD-MATHASNZTITLE1

THE World University Games (Universiade) held every two years is one of the largest sporting events on the planet but remains almost unknown to most New Zealanders.

This year Athletics New Zealand will be sending a team of 30 track and field athletes to Gwangiu, Korea, to compete in the games with more than 10,000 athletes. More than 160 countries will be represented at the event. My first appreciation of the games was while I was at Loughborough University when my training partner and fellow 800m runner John Greatrex returned from Turin, Italy, enthused and excited by the size and nature of the event.

It was 20 years later when I had my own first experience with the World University Games when I was given my first New Zealand coaching/management appointment with the small team competing at the Universiade in England at Sheffield.

There were only five athletes attending. Four were already in Europe and only one travelled with the others of the multisport team from New Zealand. I was met in England by one injured athlete and another pleading poverty as he had run out of funds on an expensive running trip to Scandinavia.

This left only three athletes and I had thoughts that this would probably be my last team appointment.

I offered to lend the distance runner the funds needed for the stay in the Games Village and to his eternal credit, he repaid it in monthly instalments on his return to New Zealand. The small team was a wonderful group to be with and all had successful subsequent athletic and professional careers. One, Cameron Taylor, is now on the Athletics New Zealand Board.

I was appointed to lead the team to Buffalo, US, two years later in 1993. In the interim period I helped extol the virtues of participation in the event and the team in Buffalo was more than twice the size. The most successful athlete was Chantal Brunner, who finished 6th in the long jump. Brunner went on for a long and successful career which included a final place at the Olympics.

After 1993 there was an eight-year gap until my next association with the Games at Daegu Korea. In the intervening years the team had grown in size and there was a greater realisation of its value in athletic development. The 2001 team had Wanganui athlete Sarah Johnston who ran in the 4 x 400 team that finished fourth and former Wanganui athlete Sophie Chiet, who was based in Auckland and was in the pole vault, as team members. Over the past 20 years other Wanganui or former Wanganui athletes including Andy Aldworth, Ian Rattray and Hugo Beamish were part of New Zealand teams.

At the top end of the Universiade the track and field is of a very high standard and in many events this is higher than the Commonwealth Games.

The multisport environment including a vibrant Games Village gives a wonderful preparation for athletes with Olympic or Commonwealth Games aspirations. The level of competition and the need to negotiate preliminary rounds provide additional benefit for athletes. The games comes without the media pressure which is part of the Olympic and Commonwealth Games experience.

It is pleasing that the largest New Zealand Track and Field contingent of 30 athletes will be competing in Korea in July. The team is a great mixture of experience and very promising young athletes. Some have the games as their major focus for the northern hemisphere season while others, such as Nikki Hamblin, are using the event as part of their preparation for the World Championships later in the northern season. Wanganui has a connection with the team with New Zealand 800m champion Brad Mathas now based in Christchurch. Mathas won his third consecutive senior 800m title in March. Late in the season he ran a personal best of 1:47.39 and the Universiade provides a huge opportunity to make the next step for this outstanding young international athlete.

The increase in size of the team and the realistic qualifying standards is good news for athletes who have just left school who can now target the next games in two years. This is a massive incentive for athletes such as Max Attwell, Geordie Beamish and Josh Ledger who have moved on from successful school careers in Wanganui Collegiate colours.