Athletics: Deadline was a career changing event

Brent Newdick has the coaching and competition to lift his standards. Picture / Dean Purcell

Brent Newdick has broken the decathlon mould.

While New Zealand's best multi-eventers, including Roy Williams, Simon Poelman, Douglas Pirini and others progressed to the 10-event gut-buster on the back of a solid sprint/field events background, Newdick, not too many years ago, was running 800m/1500m.

"Yes, I suppose I have got natural fitness," concedes Newdick, who this week added his 21st birthday celebrations to those which marked his victory in the national decathlon championship at QEII Stadium on Saturday.

Aided by seven personal bests, he cracked the 7500-point target needed for Commonwealth Games selection, ending with a 7682-point tally.

Hardly surprisingly, his 1500m times [in the last of the decathlon disciplines] have come down little from the 4m 50s he was running a few years ago when competing as a kid in transtasman competition.

Elsewhere, times and distances have improved to the extent that he now rates at least a top-five finish in Melbourne, and possibly a medal.

For a time that was pretty much pie-in-the-sky stuff.

By his own admission, Newdick was at the crossroads having been a "bit half-hearted" and quizzing himself whether he really cared about athletics.

His self-doubt came despite competing in a variety of events, including the world youth octathlon championships (a decathlon without the discus and pole vault) in Hungary in 2001 and the 2004 world junior decathlon championship in Italy 2004, Newdick still questioned himself.

That nagging doubt remained.

Last year, incoming Athletics New Zealand performance manager Eric Hollingsworth, concerned at the direction Newdick might take, handed him an ultimatum - a two-week deadline to make a commitment.

It was a no-brainer.

Newdick, who had been working in a Ponsonby bar, often until 4am, quit. He has gone into debt (something he hopes he will clear when Athletics New Zealand hand out contracts on April 1) but all, he hopes, in a good cause.

With a solid support team around him and the added advantage of having Jordan Vandermade - second in Christchurch last weekend and bound for the World Junior Championships - to push him all the way, Newdick has it all in front of him.

"The support team has been very important," said Newdick. "In 2005 I took it easy - too easy - but they now make me want to test myself all the time."

That support comes from coach Pirini, Keiran McKee (who works with him in high jump and pole vault), Les Mills (who coaches Vandermade and helps Newdick in shot put and discus) and Williams (who offers assistance in a number of other ways).

Pirini is the key.

"It was a very emotional weekend [in Christchurch]. You go through the same highs and lows as a coach as you do as an athlete," said Pirini, who has a 8115-points best.

"Our hearts were in our mouths when he had a shocker first up with the discus but then nailed a good one. After that, and especially after the pole vault, we thought he would get to at least 7500.

"Brent can gain a lot of strength by doing more work in the gym. I'm sure once he tastes international senior competition he will want more. I can see him and Jordan both doing 8155 points in the next three years."

Hollingsworth, too, is convinced Newdick can continue his improvement.

"He will be one of those athletes who will continue to get better as he does not have a weak event," said Hollingsworth. "He will be a steady improver over a five-year period who will rack up the points. He is a classical decathlete.

"I put it on him. I gave him no money until he made the call [to give it a real shot]. His 7682 points is a good international score. At Manchester 7500 was good enough for bronze. By Beijing he will do 8000 which will be good enough for top 10."

Williams said that having Vandermade and Dunedin's Peter Cox to push Newdick can only help.

"I competed against myself for eight years," said Williams. "That was never easy. The big plus for him is that he is a good competitor. He certainly seems to be far better organised than a lot of those I competed against.

"Making allowance for the conversion to the new tables, he is 1000 points better than I was at 21 years."

Poelman's 8366-point New Zealand record - set in Christchurch in 1987 - is some way off but Newdick and Vandermade have shown enough at this stage to suggest one day they might close that gap and ride the crest of a multi-sport wave their sport is enjoying.