Goodman gives World Champs team a pass mark

Scott Goodman, Athletics New Zealand High Performance Director and Team Leader to the IAAF World Championships, is reasonably pleased with the New Zealand performances in London over the two weeks.

"If you gave it a mark Id say it was six or seven out of ten. It could have been better and there were certainly a couple we need to sit down with and have a good chat with them and their support teams," said Goodman from London.

"Im feeling pretty good about it and we have a nice base now for the Commonwealth Games. Weve then got a long gap to the next major event, the Doha World Championships in October 2019, so I would like to think that we can get around 14 to 16 athletes by then and have all of them knocking on the door of top 16.

"Our High Performance Sport NZ target was one medal, one top five and two top eights. We got one medal, a gold for Tom Walsh - sort of a little bit of a bonus, Nick Willis finished eighth, and we got two ninth placings with Jacko Gill and Eliza McCartney.

"When we step back weve got such small numbers. An Achilles injury to someone like Eliza means shes jumping for a bronze medal one minute and she finishes ninth.

"I dont think in terms of governance therell be any real issues but from programme-wise, I was hoping wed do a little bit better, but Im not disappointed," said Goodman.

"We had few here that were a bit out of their range. It was similar to Rio in that our best half of the team have performed very well. Weve started having chats with some of our new athletes. Some of them on their first championships on a roll down system that was available and weve got to go back and talk to them and their coaches and what they can do to try and bridge the gap to get up to top 16 or better.

"Tom was sensational obviously and weve seen some other good results. Im very happy with Jacko, I thought Quentin was wonderful in the race walk and for Nick to get through to the final after he had an injury earlier in the season.

"Theres some really good stuff but its the next group down weve got to look at now and work out how we can support them to get them competitive at this level," said Goodman.

"We experimented a bit this year with Jacko and Eliza who were away a lot longer and we wanted to trial that in the first year of the four year cycle, so now well sit down and go back through that.

"Although Jacko got a ninth here which on paper is the same as in Rio, he only missed a top eight on a count back, His whole preparation and set up has been very good and he had a great couple of weeks leading in.

He is exciting and hes on the brink of top four or five now. He has been working with Kirsten Hellier and thats starting to really show dividends.

Quentins performance was incredible with a New Zealand record and a twelfth placing, the same result as Rio.

"Our sport is so funny - a smidgen of luck here and there and youre good and a smidgen the other way and youve missed the final or something like that.

"With Commonwealth Games so close, (April 2018) weve already started meetings with some of our athletes. Its a real challenging piece of how do we get those guys to perform well at that level. Valerie will hopefully be back for Commonwealth Games so thats a bonus for us as well.

"Well be talking to some of the first timers like Camille Buscomb - I was pleased with her approach to the 5000m race that she got up front and mixed it with the best. Joseph Millar - how do we get him running his fastest or near his best at a major championship. On paper hes done okay no problem but if he came out with the form he had in January and February he might have made a semi-final.

"Zane Robertson had a better preparation coming in than he did for Rio. He didnt quite get the result he wanted in the 10,000m but hes still sixteenth in the world and the first non-African so its not a bad effort. Zane and his twin brother Jake will probably go to the marathon now so we might see both of them in that event at the Commonwealth Games which would be pretty exciting. Their half marathon times indicate that they are going to be in the top eight or ten in the world in the marathon," said Goodman.

- This story has been automatically published using a media release from Athletics New Zealand