Walking: Sargisson drives off shadow with silver

Most mornings as people head for work, Tony Sargisson goes to the letterbox.

That regular ritual yesterday returned its most handsome dividend when the Kiwi battler walked his way to silver in a gruelling 50km slog around the Docklands.

For years Sargisson has heel and toed relentlessly in Craig Barrett's vast shadow. In a tick under four hours in rising temperatures and with a superbly timed run - "no, no walk", he insisted - Sargisson finally broke that shackle to grab the glory. Barrett, 4m 22s back, finished fourth.

Sargisson credited his success to his regimented training routine.

And the letterbox.

"I have a circuit of just under 5km. If I'm doing a 20km or 30km training walk, I work out how many water bottles I will need and put them in the letterbox," said Sargisson.

"I have a simple routine. After every second lap I pull over, grab another and keep going with hardly breaking stride. All those kilometres have now paid off."

And the time his boss has allowed him to churn out kilometre after relentless kilometre around the North Shore roads.

Yesterday was payback time for his St Joseph's Primary School principal Paul Manson, the school's board and his Year 4 (8- and 9-year-old) pupils who watched as "their" Mr Sargisson joined Anne Judkins (1990) and Barrett (2002) as New Zealanders to walk to Commonwealth Games silver. Norman Read (1966) and Scott Nelson (1994) won bronze.

Sargisson's 3h 58m 05s personal best - by 4 minutes - also was under the 4h standard for next year's world track and field championships in Osaka, Japan.

His selection in that team was confirmed on the finishing line by Athletics New Zealand performance manager Eric Hollingsworth.

"I'm absolutely stoked," said Sargisson. It did not matter he had been lapped by runaway winner Australian Nathan Deakes and was more than 15 minutes back as Deakes crossed the line to complete his "double-double" - also gold in the 20km here after the same result in Manchester.

"This is what the years and years of toil have been for," said Sargisson, 30, paying tribute to his wife, Stacey, for the role she has played in allowing him to put in the hours. "This is as much for her as it is for me."

Sargisson, assisted in recent times by Graham Seatter who was coaching Barrett at the time of his dramatic collapse in sight of gold in Kuala Lumpur, walked to a precise schedule.

There was little between his 10km splits as he worked his way through the field. Tellingly, his second 25km were two minutes faster than his first.

He was in sixth place, in the 10-strong field, at all checks until 40km when he moved into fifth. He improved by another by 45km and then mounted his charge.

Barrett was passed first. Up to fourth, Sargisson was handed a bonus when Australian Duane Cousins, in second and within sight of silver, was disqualified.

It was then a straight battle between young Australian Chris Erickson and Sargisson.

Within a few shuffling strides, Sargisson drew level with, and then by, Erickson and held his form to grab the goodies with 17s to spare.

Barrett, greeted at the line by Sargisson, admitted "deep down I swore to myself when he went by" but quickly added: "I'm proud for Tony. Every man has his day. Today it was his. He has done the hard work. Good on him. I battled away. At 25km I was with Duane [Cousins] but my body gave out.

"But don't count me out just yet. I'll be in Spain for the Walking Cup in seven weeks trying to qualify for the World Championships."

And join "Sarge" on the start line.