New athletics boss looks forward

As a self-confessed "sports buff" and boasting almost 30 years of experience in sports management recently appointed Athletics NZ Chief Executive Hamish Grey appears ideally qualified to guide the organisation to the next level.

Following on from the three year reign of Linda Hamersley, Hamish believes he is assuming the position from strength and he is looking forward to the challenge.

"Were in a really good place to launch from," says Hamish. "Linda has done a great job in positioning the organisation as fit for purpose. The challenge now is we move forward and build on the work that has been done before."

Born in Wellington but raised in Hastings, Hamish grew up a typical Kiwi kid immersed in sport. A keen cricketer and rugby player in his youth - he played national age-group level as a batsman - he also fondly recalls school sports days where he enjoyed all distances from 100m to 800m and performed "quite well" as a 400m sprinter.

Enthused by the prospect of one day being involved in the sports industry he completed a Masters Degree in Recreation and Leisure (Sport) at Victoria University of Wellington and fulfilled his ambition by taking up a position at the Hillary Commission (precursor to Sport NZ).

He worked in the KiwiSport programme and served as Manager of the National Sport Bodies at the Hillary Commission and as Private Secretary to the NZ Minister of Sport and Tourism before he was seconded overseas as part of an exchange programme to sportscotland.

It was during this period he met his now wife and he opted to stay in Edinburgh before taking on the role of Chief Executive of Scottish Golf in 1998 - a position he held for 18 years.

During his time with what he describes as a traditional" sports body (Note, Hamish had no prior background in golf) he managed to successfully amalgamate the Scottish Golf Union (formerly the mens association) and the Scottish Ladies Golfing Association and built up a performance programme which saw Scotland claim four European amateur titles and one world crown.

Yet arguably his biggest success was conceiving and developing a national junior golf programme, which resulted in the introduction of more than 500,000 Scottish school children aged nine to golf with up to 15 per cent going on to enter structured coaching in golf clubs per annum.

"We had quite a mature population in Scotland and needed to grow junior membership," he says. "Many players had been introduced to the sport by family members, and that will always be there, but we wanted to augment that by putting a structured programme in place that offered the opportunity for any child to take up golf."

After leaving Scottish Golf in April last year he served as director of the inaugural World Masters Golf Championship before his wife took up a one-year fellowship at Auckland Hospital.

Delighted to return back to his native New Zealand, Hamish was approached by the recruitment company about the possibility of taking up the role as Athletics NZ Chief Executive and was delighted to successfully apply for a role which he describes as "an honour."

"I knew that athletics was a sport on the rise (in New Zealand) led by an exemplary high performance programme," he explains of his prior knowledge of the sport and the organisation.

Building from a "strong base" he insists the way forward for the organisation sits on three key components. Firstly, Athletics NZ need to inspire through its high performance success. Secondly, it has to enable and encourage more people to participate in the sport and, thirdly, to lead by providing a financially sustainable athletics model, to work in partnership with other bodies and be a quality service provider.

With New Zealand reaping the benefit of a maturing high performance programme (New Zealand memorably snared four medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics), the next stage of HP development is sustainability, according to Hamish.

"We need to make sure that the success of the programme is not solely reliant on Scott Goodman (High Performance Director) and a handful of people - we need to put in place a succession plan and fully supported structure," says Hamish. "Failure to do this will lead to burn out and therefore it was absolutely critical for our team to restructure the staff earlier this year to allow for this. For example, this has led to the appointment of Kirsten Hellier (Athletics NZ Programme Coach - Throws) and Amanda Murphy (Assistant Coach - Throws). Jeremy McColl (Lead Coach - Pole Vault) now has an assistant (Brent Booker) to help him when he is coaching Eliza McCartney in Europe. We need to continue to build this capacity to ensure success continues beyond Tokyo, through to 2024 and beyond."

In terms of encouraging greater participation, Hamish insists with vibrant and innovative community programmes such as Run, Jump, Throw and Get Set Go as part of the Athletics NZ fabric, the "building blocks" are in place to boost numbers.

However, a reliance on trust funding has led to a "hand to mouth" existence which has bred uncertainty in terms of planning. Hamish hopes that this can be overcome in time but irrespective of funding clear objectives have been set leading through to 2022.

"What we have to think about is what is going to make the biggest difference," he insists. "It is about quality, sustainability and growing momentum."

One area which Hamish believes is vital in creating the right welcoming environment for all potential participants is at a club level. "It is no use if a child is enthused by the sport at school, if he/she is not going to access and enjoy the same quality of experience at the clubs," he says.

Underpinning this will be quality coaching with the new Chief Executive determined to develop coach education. Acknowledging the importance of youngsters in the sport both learning and having fun, he insists to achieve this the coaching network needs to be more systematic and consistent throughout NZ - the challenge for Athletics NZ will be to develop the programme with existing resources.

Another ambition is to more closely align the competitive structure to what is developmentally appropriate. While not dismissing the importance of competitiveness he believes it is not always helpful to have young kids battling to win medals.

"Just let them enjoy the experience and have fun initially," he remarks. "The long-term aim has to be for them to be involved in the sport for life as an athlete, coach or volunteer (and ideally all of these)."

The third and final component of the Athletics NZ strategy Hamish would like to see implemented is a clear sense of direction regarding leadership and overall engagement in the sport.

To enable this to happen financial sustainability is key and he says the high performance sport programme has provided the "prototype case study" which needs to be applied across the sport.

"Finances and people are critical," says Hamish, 50. "Then it is a matter of how do we invest and develop, for example, quality coaches for the future benefit of the sport?"

At the core of the Athletics NZ future vision are growth and sustainability. He is excited by the future of the sport and is hopeful that five years from now athletics in New Zealand will be in a much stronger position.

"I hope the culture has developed further with a real focus on quality coaching," he explains. "Take Tom Walsh, for example. Would he have become the great athlete today if he had grown up 40km away rather than in Timaru? There he came across an excellent coach (Ian Baird) who nurtured and grew Tom before passing him on selflessly to another coach for further development. Our ambition must be that no matter where you are growing up in the country - from Northland to Southland and all points in between - to have that same consistency of opportunity."

Which brings us to the final question; Why does Hamish love working in sport?

"Because you can make a difference to peoples quality of life," he explains. "To see a child master a skill for the first time, an athlete compete at a national championship level, Olympic Games or even win a medal on the world stage is special. Not many other walks of life provide that opportunity."

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