Pre Event Media Coverage – Friday 13th March 2009
4 March 2009
For immediate release
Willis withdraws from mile field
Olympic bronze 1500m runner Nick Willis announced yesterday that he
will be unable to join the mile field in next Friday’s International
Track Meet due to a hip injury.
Willis, who had stated his intention to target John Walker’s
longstanding NZ all comers record at the meet, will still be in
Christchurch for the track meet and will be undertaking all his
intended promotional appearances.
“This has been extremely heartbreaking for me as I have been wanting
desperately to race some world-class races in New Zealand since the
Olympic Games” said Willis yesterday. “The event organisers in
Christchurch have done such a fantastic job at putting up high quality
fields that the meet will be successful with me watching from the
sidelines. I’m excited I can still be involved talking to the kids
and signing autographs before and after the race.”
With Willis’s withdrawal from the mile, 2008 world’s fastest miler
Andrew Baddeley will start the race as favourite as he and Beijing
Olympian training partner Jeff Riseley attempt Walkers record.
The pair will face strong competition from the five other sub-four
minute milers in the field,including 3:53s milers Lachlan Chisholm
and double US indoor 1500m champion Rob Myers, Australian Beijing
Olympian Collis Birmingham and the fastest New Zealander in the
race Gareth Hyett.
Willis has also withdrawn from his only other NZ race the Milestone
Street Mile in Petone but will also attend that event for promotional
purposes.
Ends
1 March 2009
For immediate release
Record-breaking sprinters to race in Christchurch
Christchurch sports fans will have an opportunity to see brand new NZ sprint record holders Monique Williams and David Ambler in action when they race in Christchurch this month.
Triple NZ sprint champion Monique Williams, who broke Kim Robertson’s 30 year old NZ national 200m record on Friday in Sydney with a time of 22.98s will join the 200m field in Christchurch at the International Track Meet on March 13th .
Also racing in Christchurch is new NZ national M19 100m record holder David Ambler, a local Canterbury athlete who broke Matt Brown’s 2006 record in Sydney on Friday with a time of 10.41s.
Six other international athletes who set personal bests in Sydney on Friday will also race at the Christchurch meet on March 13, fuelling expectations of top performances in all events.
27 February 2009
For immediate release
Top US pacemaker for Willis record attempt
The battle between Nick Willis and Andrew Baddeley for John Walker’s 28 year old New Zealand allcomers mile record is set for a blistering pace with the confirmation of top US miler Rob Myers this week as pacemaker for the March 13th race.
With the mile field for the Christchurch event the best assembled in New Zealand for at least 25 years, and most of New Zealand’s fastest 1500m prospects racing in their own right, organisers were forced to look overseas for a top class runner who could run Willis and Baddeley through to the later stages of the race at the pace necessary to attack Walker’s record of 3:50.6 for the best time set on NZ soil.
“It takes a top runner in their own right to have the speed and strength to lead a field for 2-3 laps at the right pace” said Meet Director Craig Motley. “Myers is a sub-four minute miler and a training partner of Nick’s, and securing a pacemaker of his calibre makes it far more likely that the record attempt will be successful”.
A member of Willis’s US training squad, Myers is a former US representative, is ranked in the top 20 in the world this year and has a mile personal best time of 3:53.78.
The More FM Mile will be the headline event of the International Track Meet to be held in Christchurch on 13th March, featuring top local and international athletic talent.
For further information please contact Leyton Tremain: 021 719 900
Event website – www.internationaltrackmeet.co.nz
Rob Myers website – www.rutoughenough.com
Nick Willis website – www.willisrunning.com
Andrew Baddeley website – www.andrewbaddeley.co.uk
The Press, Tuesday, 17 February 2009
Young sprinter breaks record
Sprinter David Ambler broke the Canterbury record for the 100 metres, clocking 10.47 seconds competing in Sydney at the New South Wales track and field championships.
Ambler, still a junior, competed in the open men’s division last weekend and won the event after being the top qualifier from the heats and semifinals earlier in the day.
Ambler said the conditions were not that favourable, with a slight headwind and a wet track after plenty of rain during the day, but he still managed a personal best time. Ambler trimmed almost a 10th of a second off the record he jointly shared with Scott Bowden of 10.56s to claim the record after equalling Bowden’s 20-year record in December in Dunedin.
Ambler, coached by Christchurch sprint coach Andrew Maclennan, is aiming to break the New Zealand junior record of 10.43s this weekend when he competes in Canberra at the ACT Track and Field Championships.
17th February 2009
For Immediate Release
Miles of Talent for Christchurch Track Meet
Christchurch will host an International Track and Field meeting on Friday the 13 th of March 2009. This two hour meeting will feature many of New Zealand ‘s top athletes and provide competition from Australian athletes in many events. This competitive opportunity should result in many personal best performances as our athletes peak in preparation for the national champs only two weeks later. The International Track Meet will bring together top children’s and secondary schools relay teams, paralympic, provincial, national and international athletes to deliver a nights competition that is sure to entertain the crowds.
Jessica Hamill, New Zealand Paralympic representative will compete in Athletes With Disabilities (AWD) Shot Put where she holds both the New Zealand and Oceania records at 7.12 meters. Alongside this competition will be the All Comers Shot Put where women and men, sporting code versus code will all compete against each other for ultimate supremacy. The men headed up by Commonwealth Games Decathlete Brent Newick, former Crusaders Rugby Player Pete Bowden and former Highlander Dan Charteris will use the standard shot weight (7.26kg) while the women use their standard shot (4 kg). Silver Ferns captain Julie Seymour will have good company with Commonwealth Games Heptathletes Rebecca Wardell and Sarah Cowley in the girls camp. Currently Newdick has a personal best 1cm further than Wardell and with athletes competing not only for their gender but also their code and personal pride, this event will be closely followed and is sure to be a fierce competition.
New Zealand ‘s Nick Willis will attempt to break John Walker’s 28 year old New Zealand Mile Resident Record to claim the fastest mile ever run in New Zealand . Willis who has already broken Walkers National 1500m record is showing fantastic early form this season finishing second to World Champion Bernard Lagat at the Milrose Games where he comfortably broke 4 minutes on the tight and demanding 145m indoor track in his first race. In Willis’s second outing he won the Reebok Boston Indoor Games Mile by over a second to clock 3:53.54. This time is within three seconds of Walkers record that he will be chasing in Christchurch in March. Indoor races by nature are slower than outdoor with tighter tracks slowing the runners down and offering fewer opportunities to pass.
The More FM International Mile boasts a field containing seven current sub 4 minute milers from NZ, Australia , Ireland and England including five Olympians. Meet organisers had secured the services of Melbourne Commonwealth Games 1500m Silver and Bronze medalists Nate Brannen (Canada) and Mark Fountain (Australia) however Brannen’s season has been disrupted by a flare up of an old injury while Fountain was tripped in a race breaking his collarbone. Such is the close nature of middle distance running where falls are commonplace when athletes jostle for position as the pace often surges during tactical battles. Andrew Baddeley was the victim of such misfortune when he and Craig Mottram fell during the Melbourne Commonwealth Games 1500m final. Baddeley is hungry to beat Willis in Christchurch after his Commonwealth Games dream was shattered in the fall. Baddeley was the fastest miler in the world in 2008 and won the Dream Mile at the Oslo Golden League and will ensure Willis doesn’t have the race all his own way.
Double Olympian (Atlanta and Sydney) Chris Donaldson who has dominated New Zealand sprinting for over a decade by claiming both the 100m and 200m New Zealand titles from 1997 – 2000 and the 100m title in 2007 and 2008 is back in his spikes as part of his preparation to represent New Zealand in the 4 man Bobsleigh at the upcoming 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. Vancouver will add to Donaldson’s outstanding career spanning three Olympics and two Commonwealth Games. Donaldson will face strong competition in Christchurch from our best current sprinters who will be lead by Beijing Olympian James Dolphin.
The international track meeting at QEII Stadium will also feature Aranui High Schools acclaimed Jazz Band and showcase New Zealand ‘s best athletes through the full spectrum from top Colgate Games teams (under 14 years) to professional athletes and provide a visible pathway for our next generation of Olympians to get inspired. This is sure to be an evening’s entertainment that you won’t forget. Tickets are on sale now at www.internationaltrackmeet.co.nz
The Mile
3:49.08 – John Walker – National Record
3:50.6 – John Walker – All Comers Record
3:50.6 – John Walker – Resident Record
3:49.38 – Andrew Baddeley – Personal Best
3:50.66 – Nick Willis – Personal Best
Further Information contact Leyton Tremain 021 719 900.
8th Feb 09
Willis tastes success in Boston Indoor Games
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/2466388
PhotosportNew Zealand’s Nick Willis
New Zealand runner Nick Willis won the mile at the Boston Indoor Games indoor athletics meeting on Sunday, clocking the fastest time of the year for the United States season.
In a loaded field that included his former Michigan University teammate Alan Webb, and a number of sub-four minute runners, the Beijing Olympics 1500m bronze medallist clocked three minutes, 53.54 seconds.
Once pacesetter Adam Perkins dropped out, Pablo Solares of Mexico took over the lead with Willis and Chris Lukezic in second and third.
At the gun, the race was on, with Willis taking the lead on the backstretch and holding off Solares and Lukezic.
A week ago, Willis finished second to seven-time winner Bernard Lagat in the prestigious Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games indoor athletic meet.
Lagat clocked 3min 58.44sec to pip Willis whose time was 3min 59.48sec.
Willis’ fastest mile time is 3min 50.66sec which he set while finishing second at last year’s Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, during his buildup to the Olympics.
30th Jan 09
Nick Willis interview after finishing 2nd to Bernard Lagat in his first race of the season at the Millrose Games in New York where Willis ran 3:59.48 for the Mile on an indoor 145m track. Willis had beaten Lagat in the last three match ups.
http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234562-2009-millrose-games/134270-nick-willis-09-millrose
From: The Times
January 10, 2009
Andy Baddeley steps up pursuit of medals
Rick Broadbent, Athletics Correspondent
If there was one sight guaranteed to pain Andy Baddeley as his Olympic dream soured last summer, it was not the bloody leg but the image of Nick Willis running into what the New Zealand media termed “sporting immortality”. The fresh-faced Kiwi had taken an unlikely bronze medal in the 1,500 metres final and gushed about how he would pay off the mortgage. Baddeley, by contrast, went to the airport, where he expected a dressing-down from Lord Coe.
Having beaten Willis at the World Championships the previous year, Baddeley knew that a place on the Olympic podium was tantalisingly close. He made a bid for home but his legs tied up. He had been spiked and had missed three weeks of training before the Games, but he did not proffer that as an excuse. For him, ninth was nowhere.
Hence, when he found himself standing next to Coe, part of Britain’s middle-distance holy trinity from the 1980s along with Steve Ovett and Steve Cram, at Beijing airport, he feared the worst. “I was a bit worried because I thought he would be critical,” he said. “Some people were saying I must be happy to have made the final, but I don’t train to make finals. But Seb actually put a few things in perspective. He asked how much I was training and thought I was doing it right. He pointed out the very high quality of the 1,500 metres now. He was very positive.”
Baddeley, who has a cardiac monitoring device in his chest because of an irregular heartbeat, returns to action today in defence of his four kilometres title at the Bupa Great Edinburgh International Cross Country meeting. Also competing are Steph Twell, the rising British star, and Eliud Kipchoge, the Olympic silver medal-winner from Kenya . Baddeley will then race indoors in the United States before heading Down Under, where he will take on Willis in an invitational mile in Christchurch . Having won the Dream Mile in Oslo last year, becoming the first Briton to do so since Peter Elliott in 1991, and recording the third-fastest time of the past three years, Baddeley should expect to have the beating of the Kiwi. But, then, he did in Beijing , too. “It’s a motivator and a frustration,” he said of Willis’s Olympic bronze. “It could have been me. I suppose the more people who can get up there, the better it is for the non-Africans, but I’ve never been daunted by running against the top Africans.
“The first time I put my GB kit on for the Olympics was to get on the plane and I could barely walk because of my Achilles. The main aim was to get through the flight and have some physio. I didn’t mention it at the time because I did not want to make an excuse and a lot of people were in the same situation, but the more I reflected, the more I thought that what was missing was those three key weeks.”
Baddeley’s progress last year was impressive. Even with a disrupted build-up he said that he ran his best race in a loaded Olympic semi-final. The time did not show it, some three seconds adrift of his best of 3min 34.36sec, but the tactics did. Willis was only fifth, the last of the qualifiers, while Bernard Lagat, the world champion from the United States , crashed out.
Times can be deceiving when it comes to the championships, though. Willis was only the twentieth-fastest man in the world last year and Baddeley said: “The Dream Mile is the only quick-paced race I’ve had in the last few years and it’s just unfortunate it was not a 1,500 metres.”
Married in October, he said that he has delayed plans to remove the ECG (electrocardiogram) device in his chest until after the World Championships in Berlin in August – the batteries died long ago. Baddeley, though, insists that there is plenty of life left in him. “I’m 26 now and know what I’m capable of,” he said. “Medals are the aim from now on.”
23 rd December 2008
For Immediate Release
Willis accepts challenge from Worlds Fastest Miler
Christchurch will host an International Track and Field meeting on Friday the 13 th of March 2009. New Zealand athletes Valerie Villi and Nick Willis made history at the Beijing Olympics claiming Gold and Bronze medals in the jewel of the games the Track and Field. This made Beijing the most successful Olympic campaign by kiwi athletes at the track since John Walker and Dick Quax medalled at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
This Black Friday event is shaping up to provide a rare opportunity to watch some of the best athletes in the world do battle during two hours of the best athletics you are likely to see live in New Zealand. The feature race, the men’s international invitational Mile has the potential to be the fastest Mile ever run on New Zealand soil. To achieve this huge feat, the foot soldiers will have to better John Walker’s New Zealand Resident and All Comers National record (3 minutes 50.6 seconds) set in Auckland back in 1981. In addition to the prize money on offer, a bonus will be paid for breaking John Walker’s record. The “Black Singlet” will be represented by our own Nick Willis, our second fastest all time Kiwi miler. Willis has successfully continued the long tradition of Kiwi Milers taking on the world that was started with Jack Lovelock and cemented by greats Peter Snell and John Walker.
Despite Willis’s impressive resume he won’t have the race all his own way as he takes on the challenge from the world’s fastest miler this year Andrew Baddeley. Meet organisers are also confident of having several other nations represented to make this field truly international with elite athletes likely from Canada , Australia , Ireland and Great Britain .
Athletics Canterbury have secured the services of Andrew Baddeley ( United Kingdom ) who will return to New Zealand for the second time in March 2009. In 2007 Baddeley won the Mayoral Mile Race in Wanganui when he defeated Gareth Hyett, New Zealand ‘s 13 th fastest all time miler. Baddeley ran the world’s fastest time for the Mile in 2008 when he won the Dream Mile (3:49.38, Oslo Golden League, Bislett Stadium). Baddeley finished 9 th in the Beijing Olympics 1500m and placed 9 th at the 2007 World Track and Field Championships in front of Willis who finished 10 th .
Willis claimed John Walkers 30 year old national 1500m record (3:32.4 set in Oslo in 1975) when he ran 3:32.38 in 2005 before lowering it to the current National Record of 3:32.17 (set 8th of July 2006), 24 years and 1 day after John Walker set the current New Zealand mile record of 3:49.08 (9 th July 1982, Oslo). Willis and his wife Sierra are based in Michigan and will be providing the New Zealand public with a rare opportunity to watch him race against world class opposition alongside New Zealand ‘s best milers.
This international track meeting at QEII Stadium will also feature Aranui High Schools acclaimed Jazz Band along with showcasing New Zealand ‘s best athletes through the full spectrum from top Colgate Games relay teams, Secondary schools mile relay challenge and our top Paralympics athletes building towards the 2010 IPC World Championships. This is sure to be an evening’s entertainment that you won’t forget. Tickets go on sale in January 2009.
The Mile
3:49.08 – John Walker – NZ National Record
3:50.6 – John Walker – NZ All Comers Record
3:50.6 – John Walker – NZ Resident Record
3:49.38 – Andrew Baddeley – Personal Best
3:50.66 – Nick Willis – Personal Best
