Throw for Gold programme launched

The ‘Throw for Gold’ programme was launched at Jellicoe Park in Manurewa South Auckland last Thursday.

It is the seventh programme to be established by the John Walker ‘Find Your Field of Dreams’ Foundation. It has been set up to unearth a new Valerie Adams or Stuart Farquhar and is funded by SPARC and The Lion Foundation. The junior throws development programme will be delivered by Athletics New Zealand and its aim is to identify and develop potential future discus, shot put and javelin champions. The selected athletes will receive specialist coaching, equipment and nutritional and behavioural advice to support their development.

The programme is managed by head coach Nigel Edwards and is supported by four other coaches.
Edwards is excited by the thought of having a number of future champion throwers emerging from New Zealand.

“I’m absolutely fantastically excited – It’s just brilliant we actually have talent, we actually have the future champions of New Zealand already here being launched today,” said Edwards.

“We have a great team, we have five coaches, we have over 100 years of throwing experience, so it’s just passion all the way, we just love it,” he added.

Peter Miskimmin, CEO of SPARC said that they have been looking at talent development across all sports.
“We have been looking at where we think we have an advantage and where we can hone and focus on identifying and bringing through young talented athletes,” said Miskimmin.

“Clearly this community and the talent pool that is here represent a huge opportunity. So working with Sir John, who had a vision of doing this and also Athletics New Zealand it was a fairly easy fit and I’m hugely encouraged by what’s happened here today,” he added.

“Look the potential, it’s exciting. You come here and you get excited by it, so enormously talented kids, great programme, great coaches, you get the sense and feeling of what’s that about. So that’s wonderful.”
Sir John Walker believes there are many future throwing champions among the thousands who attend secondary school in the Auckland area.

“I think that is where our future is. I mean we look at Valerie Adams and she’s leading the way with Beatrice as well. I had a feeling that there had to be a lot more kids out in the schools where they don’t get an opportunity because there’s no money and there is no one there coaching, so what we do is devise a programme where we go into every school in South Auckland and make kids throw a shot, discus and the javelin and basically what we are looking for is raw talent and future champions,” said Sir John.

“These are kids of our future, not so much on the track but as a new era of throwers. The Polynesians have been unrecognised for so long, they’re raw, they’re big, they’re strong and talented, why not develop them into athletes,” he added.

Sir John said that we have concentrated on running for quite some time.

“We’ve still got some good track athletes and the glamour is still there, but these kids are the future, cause we just don’t know how good they are. If we come out with 30 athletes out of the schools, now it’s up to the coaches to nurture and keep them going and if we do that we’ll have some future champions and I’ve no doubt we’ve seen that already today,” he said.

Siositina Hakeai, a member of the group, presented Sir John with the discus that she had secured a New Zealand W16 record of 51.52m with in Canada in July before going on to compete at the world junior championships.

Terry Lomax Athletics New Zealand High Performance Rio 2016 Performance Project Manager said that it is an excellent concept.

“This could be the start of an approach that could be very fruitful in terms of getting athletes into the sport and giving them a pathway to success.

“It is good to see the opportunity that is there for the talent to come out and to see some of the kids displaying their talents out here today, it’s just a tremendous opportunity,” said Lomax.