Athletics: Hamblin to clear air with coach

Nikki Hamblin's at-times rocky relationship with coach Chris Pilone has attracted Athletics NZ help. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Athletics New Zealand has moved to smooth the occasionally choppy waters between one of the country's best athletes and her high-profile coach.

Nikki Hamblin won two silver medals within four days at the Delhi Commonwealth Games, over 1500m and 800m, in October. She is coached by Chris Pilone, Hamish Carter's coach when he won his Olympic gold in Athens six years ago.

In Delhi there were signs their relationship was not always harmonious. Pilone admitted at the time that "we've been at loggerheads a few times ... we've managed to hold it together for the last part of the year but it certainly hasn't been a cruise by any means".

British-born Hamblin, 22 and based in Cambridge, made a point of lingering in the background when Pilone was being interviewed after her second final, the 800m. She half-joked that she was "just checking what he's saying".

That said, there's also plenty of robust respect for each other's capabilities.

Within the past week, Athletics NZ (ANZ) high-performance director Kevin Ankrom, Hamblin and Pilone have had a couple of meetings, with Ankrom at pains to point out the scenario was nothing new for the national body and top athletes.

"Three or four months before Delhi this was an issue," Ankrom said of the pair's relationship.

"It wasn't only at Delhi and that's why we wanted to make sure we worked through those issues and [we are] looking as far as London [and the 2012 Olympic Games]."

Ankrom said ANZ wanted to make sure every leading athlete had the best support structure in place to help ensure top-quality performances. In that respect, Hamblin's case was no different from many other athletes.

Ankrom said it had always been a plan to sit down with Hamblin and Pilone post-Delhi to check the lie of the land. He's happy with what he's seen in the last few days.

"We've reached good common ground," he said. "As a diagnosis, it's stable, it's looking as if we're making some good progress and it'll be a pragmatic approach to how we look to move forward."

Asked if both parties had put their hands up and admitted they could do more to tighten the relationship, Ankrom said: "You have to do that in any relationship do you not, if you're going to work together?

"I think right now all parties are very comfortable with where we are at."

Pilone did not want to discuss the issue in detail.

"There has been a meeting of a group of us and it was quite productive," he said yesterday.

It is a quiet time for Hamblin leading into the New Zealand summer with no high-profile targets on the immediate horizon and Pilone has other coaching obligations at the moment.

In Delhi, Hamblin, who became eligible to run for New Zealand only last year, became the first Kiwi woman to win two Games medals on the track at one meet since Lorraine Moller 28 years ago in Brisbane.