Athletics: Barrett wary of Games repeat

By Murray McKinnon

in Monte Gordo, Portugal


Leading New Zealand road walker Craig Barrett, of Hamilton, will cast more than a wary eye at the weather conditions once he hits Seville this week for the world athletic championships.

Barrett won the hearts of New Zealanders with his courageous effort at last year's Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, when he collapsed from heat exhaustion while leading just a kilometre from the finish of the gruelling 50km road walk.

Steve Hollings, director of high performance for Athletics New Zealand, said conditions in Seville would be tough.

"Heat-wise it will be very hot and very dry, conditions as tough as KL," said Hollings.

Temperatures at the start of Barrett's race will be 21 degrees, and he will expect to finish in 30 degrees.

"I can't say it won't happen again, but I have learned from my mistakes and I will take this same knowledge into this race," said Barrett at an acclimatisation camp in Portugal.

Barrett is delighted with the improvement in his world ranking over the past 12 months, after carving three minutes off his personal best in May with 3h 48m 14s taking him to 15th.

"It is a good step up the ladder, from 30th in 1998 it is another step in the right direction."

At the world championships in Athens in 1997 Barrett was the best-performed New Zealand male athlete with an outstanding 13th place in 3h 56m 30s, just one place behind the current world No 1 Sergey Korepanov, of Kazakhstan (with 3h 39m 22s).

"My goal this time is the top eight," said Barrett.

The event will be staged around a 2.5km loop starting and finishing in the stadium and Barrett will have plenty of support from his family and his coach Graham Seatter.

"Graham will give me my lap splits, my sister Colette will be on the drink station and my mum Maureen will be there waving the flag."

The 27-year-old was a little disappointed with his last time trial in New Zealand over 20km around a track.

"It showed I was very tired and I had to revise my training schedule. This included working out on an exercycle in a heat chamber."

Before the championships Barrett will have two hard training sessions. His race starts at 5.45 pm on August 25 (NZ time) and will finish around 9.25 pm.