Comm Games: Eight athletes bolster team

Nikki Hamblin highlights the addition of eight athletes to New Zealand's team to compete in Glasgow. Photo / Getty

Commonwealth Games silver medallist Nikki Hamblin highlights the addition of eight athletes to New Zealand's team to compete in Glasgow.

Three individual athletes and five relay team members have been named by the New Zealand Olympic Committee in the third and final athletics selection for the Glasgow Games, bringing the total to 20 athletes.

Along with Hamblin, set to compete in the 1500m, the other athletes who have earned inclusion are Julian Matthews (1550m) and Lucy Van Dalen (5000m).

Hamblin famously won silver medals in the 800m and 1500m at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi and holds the New Zealand 1500m record as well as the second fastest time for 800m.

The 26-year-old has represented New Zealand at two World Championships, at Berlin in 2009 and Daegu in 2011, as well as representing Oceania at the 2010 Continental Cup in Split.

Injury prevented Hamblin from competing at the 2012 London Olympics and the 2013 Moscow World Championships, but she is running well again, with a 4:07.07 time in Los Angeles recently.

Matthews, 25, first represented New Zealand at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival in 2005, winning gold in the 1500m. He spent a number of years in the United States university system at Providence College in Rhode Island.

Back in New Zealand, the Nelson-based athlete won the New Zealand 1500m tile in 2012 and placed second this year. The Glasgow Games will be Matthews' first as part of a senior New Zealand team.

Van Dalen competed at the London Olympics, making it through to the semifinals in the 1500m at her fist major championship. She recently competed at the World Indoor championships in Poland in the 3000m.

The Auckland-based athlete competed for Stony Brook University in New York for several years, winning the NCAA Indoor Mile championship in 2012. The following year she won the New Zealand 1500 title.

Van Dalen, who ran 15:22.95 for the 5000m California in May, is the fourth fastest ever New Zealander over that distance and the second fastest over 1500m.

The women's 4x400m relay team, given the green light at the early May selection announcement, has five athletes named by the selectors - Zoe Ballantyne, Portia Bing, Katherine Camp, Brooke Cull and Louise Jones.

Monique Dell will be confirmed as selected in the relay squad subject to form and fitness requirements being met, while Kristie Baillie and Ellie McCleery will be reserves for the team.

The Kiwi athletics team has the potential to grow to 23 if Dell and decathletes Brent Newdick and Scott McLaren satisfy the selectors' requirements to prove their fitness and form.