The days of reckoning are drawing closer for Hawke’s Bay sprinter Georgia Hulls, who next week starts what she calls her “first serious Olympics effort”.
Specifically, it’s a bid to be part of a possible record New Zealand athletics Olympic Games contingent in Paris from July 26 to August 11.
And sprinting is a big part of it, with Hulls now alongside major rival Rosie Elliott of Christchurch as they train together in Auckland, both hoping to be at the starting line when the 200 metres heats are run on August 4.
Their star turn was in Christchurch on February 19 last year when the pair broke the national women’s 200 metres record - Elliott claiming the new record with 22.81sec and Hulls running 22.84sec, compared with the World Athletics 2024 qualifying entry standard of 22.57s.
“It’s awesome to be along for the ride,” Hulls said on Wednesday from Auckland, to where many of the big names, including Zoe Hobbs of Taranaki, have gravitated for the best of training opportunities, at the AUT Millennium fitness centre at Rosedale, North Shore, with coach James Mortimer.
The Kiwi sprint queens all on one stage in Hastings in 2020 - Rosie Elliott (from left), Zoe Hobbs and Hawke's Bay's own Georgia Hulls. Photo / NZME
With two World Championships and close to 10 years of international experience behind her, Hulls’ path to the dream run starts at the Adelaide Invitational on February 10, and has a rapid-fire kick with the invitation-only Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne five days later, and the Christchurch international meeting on February 24.
“I wouldn’t normally choose to races three weeks in a row like that,” said Hulls, who was at the Potts Classic on January 20, at which she first ran as a Havelock North High School pupil in 2012.
However, while still proudly running for Hastings Athletics Club, she didn’t compete at the Potts Classic, saying she wasn’t “quite ready” at the time. She now is and hopes that by the end of February she will have locked-in what’s needed for Olympics selection, which is based on a 50/50 split of those achieving the qualifying standard of 22.57s and those attaining a ranking high enough on a World Athletics points scale to make the 48-strong field.
If it doesn’t happen within those three meetings, which are all approved meetings for ranking points, there will still be the defence of her New Zealand championships title in Wellington on March 1-3, the Australian championships in Adelaide on April 11-19 and other opportunities abroad.
Among the New Zealand athletes with qualifying entry standards to their names is US-based Hawke’s Bay runner George Beamish, in both the 3000 metres steeplechase and the the 5000 metres, but at this stage Beamish is targeting the jumps event.
The others are Hobbs, Sam Tanner (1500 metres), Hamish Kerr (high jump), shot putters Jacko Gill and Tom Walsh, Camille Buscomb (marathon), Eliza McCartney (pole vault) and Maddi Wesche (shot put).
Along with Hulls and Elliott, a range of others are still waiting to put their best foot forward, including hurdler Portia Bing, 2023 world championships discus finalist Connor Bell, Birmingham Commonwealth Games women’s pole vault bronze medallist Imogen Ayris and third pole vault hope Olivia McTaggart.
Training up to seven days a week, but with “days off” on Wednesday and Sundays, Hulls’ international competition experience dates back to the world youth championships in Colombia in 2015, when her parents sold their home to help fund the trip and make sure they could be there to watch.
Georgia Hulls claiming a national secondary schools championships 100 metres title in Whanganui in 2014.
While the New Zealand Olympic Committee has tough standards of its own, prioritising those with potential to achieve a top-16 placing, Hulls is confident of further progression, believing she “will qualify” and saying the Christchurch meeting seems to be timed about right for the best conditions.
Over the last three years she’s lowered her PB by 1.15 seconds, from 23.99s at the end of 2020, to 23.35s at the end of 2021, to 23.17s at the end of 2022, through the magic moment of going under 23 seconds 12 months ago.
It doesn’t come without a lot of help - along with her parents having sold their home to help her, there’s been a Napier benefactor who’s been with her most of “the ride” and sponsors as well, with the only sports funding being that tied to invitations to events, or being selected.
