Athletics: Hollingsworth spells out tough line

Eric Hollingsworth makes no apologies for the hard-nosed attitude he has brought to his role as Athletics New Zealand's performance director.

Born in England to a Trinidadian father and Polish mother, Hollingsworth, who played professional soccer at West Ham, was a world class decathlete and later spent years at the Australian and Victorian Institutes of Sport, has no time for imposters.

"Close enough is not good enough any more," said the 43-year-old, who has been in the job since June.

"If they are not there [at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games] to perform for New Zealand, they will not be there as tourists.

"Any athletes I send away with a black singlet will go because I know they have earned that right and have the ability to perform."

Hollingsworth is convinced there will be no passengers in the Games team. "We will place in finals," he says with conviction.

"The message to the athletes and their coaches is clear. They all know what is expected."

From April 1 Athletics New Zealand will instigate a contractual system with funding based solely on performance and aimed at getting athletes into the top eight in their event.

Hollingsworth said there will be good money for proven performers. "But," he stresses, "no handouts."

The points gained by placing in the top eight in major events are vital to New Zealand's International Amateur Athletic Federation ranking.

It is now 34th on the IAAF list but Hollingsworth sees 15 to20 as realistic.

"We got 11 points at the World Championships in Helsinki - through Valerie [Vili] and Beatrice [Faumuina] but we have to look for more. I don't go along with people who say New Zealand is too small to get up there.

"Jamaica, a country with the same population as New Zealand, ranks third. But we have to be realistic.

"Before I came here there were people who were saying New Zealand was going to win three medals at the Sydney Olympics. [It] did not place one athlete in the top eight."

Hollingsworth is not afraid to tell it as it is. "There is no point in pumping $10,000 into an athlete who will never make it. If Commonwealth Games performances don't translate on to the world stage, forget it."

Hollingsworth points to the current crop of sprinters as an example of how things have, and will, be done.

"I sat them all down individually and told them their funding had gone. As individuals they were not going to make the 10.30s 100m [Games] standard," he said.

"I then talked in terms of the 4x100m relay in which a team had already qualified. Any funding was then diverted from the athletes as individuals into the relay.

"We can already see what that has meant. We now have up to 10 sprinters capable of pushing for a place in that team."

The sport as a whole is under the microscope.

With chief executive Jeremy Kennerley leading the charge, there will be changes.

Some, he admits, might not be popular but all are seen as necessary to drag the once-proud sport back to the world stage.

While loathe to admit it publicly, given the interest and demands from their stakeholders, Hollingsworth and Kennerley would have preferred to see a New Zealand presence at March's World Indoor Championships in Moscow.

That would have given the chance of vital IAAF points which are being denied by putting all eggs in the Commonwealth Games basket.

Hollingsworth accepts that, to a degree. "Those backing our sport want to see medals in Melbourne and two years later at the Beijing Olympics." He claims he would be "delighted" to see 20 athletes on that stage in 2008.

He adds, cautiously, that 15, including the men's sprint relay team (who he is adamant will be good enough to make the final) might be more realistic.

Again, he emphasises, "there will be no trips for the boys [or girls]".

New Zealand's first look at top-class athletes in some time will come early next year with the staging of two IAAF permit meetings.

"To get a start at those meetings, which are just one step down from the Golden League level, athletes will need a world ranking," said Kennerley.

That, surely, should be incentive enough for Hollingsworth, the athletes and the coaches to show the principled approach is the right one and one designed to bring keenly anticipated results.