Gill to forgo Olympic quest for junior title

[John]

In a shock announcement, teenage shot put sensation Jacko Gill has withdrawn from contention for the New Zealand team for the London Olympics.

Citing a desire to concentrate on his pursuit of the under-20 age-group world record and the defence of his world junior championship title, the Aucklander made the announcement today.

It will surprise many people, with the special youngster widely recognised as having gold medal potential at the senior level. He was considered a good chance to make the final in London where experience would have been a key part of his ongoing development.

However, after last Sunday being told his qualifying throw of 20.30m had only been good enough to put him in a group of possible Games participants - pending further developments - it appears Gill, and his advisers, have had a rethink.

The world junior championships (in Barcelona mid-July) take place just weeks before the Olympic Games opening ceremony and are Gill’s last shot at the junior event. He also competes with a lighter (6kg) junior shot, compared to the open 7.26kg spere.

“I will now put all my eggs in the one basket.” Gill said. "I cannot focus my training with even the smallest doubt of selection, in particular which weight shots to throw and associated distractions.

“If I had been named for the Olympics at this early stage, it would have been a different scenario.”

At a meeting on Saturday at the Gill family home, Athletics New Zealand High Performance Director Scott Goodman worked through the decision with Jacko and his father Walter, a former national shot put champion.

“Jacko is an amazing young athlete and person,” said Goodman. "Attending both the Olympics and the junior world championships was still a realistic option for him, but after listening to him and his father I realised that he had made a well thought through decision for his long term development.

"Elite shot putters often have long careers competing well into their thirties and at just 17 years of age, Jacko clearly has many competitive years ahead of him.

“Jacko’s long term goal is to win the Gold medal at an Olympic Games.”

Gill confirmed that it had taken him four days to make the decision not to seek selection for the Olympics.

“I believe that my decision not to seek selection for this year’s Olympic Games is the best approach for me to achieve my long-term goal of winning gold at a future Olympic Games,” he said.

“The decision has been made with a lot of thought and is final. I hope that everyone will continue to support me in my goals and respect my decision.”

Goodman said the athlete has Athletics New Zealand’s full support.

"Like many New Zealanders, I would have loved to have seen Jacko competing in London against the world’s best. However, I am very impressed by Jacko’s strength of character and his logic in making the decision. When you listen to his reasoning and single-minded determination to be the best in the world, it is impressive.

Gill will remain in New Zealand until June before embarking on a series of warm-up meets through Europe prior to the world junior championships.

Athletics NZ admitted to the Sunday Star-Times at the weekend they had “miscommunicated” qualifying standards for London to a number of track and field athletes, including Gill.

Goodman said Athletics NZ had originally told Gill and others there was only one qualifying standard for London – which Gill had already knocked off.

But at the weekend the national body admitted there were two standards and Gill had only bettered the B mark, which meant he could not be rubber-stamped for London.

• © Fairfax NZ News

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/6680406/Gill-to-forgo-Olympic-quest-for-junior-title

[John]

Athletics: Why Jacko Gill quit

A whispering campaign, a perception of unfair and even provocative judging and an overall feeling he was being obstructed rather than encouraged - Jacko Gill’s shock withdrawal from the London Olympics came after months of frustration and discontent.

Athletics New Zealand’s qualification “blunder” that led Gill to focus solely on the world junior championships this year was the last straw. Track and field sources in this country have made it clear that there was more to 17-year-old shot put sensation Gill’s decision not to go to the Olympics - and was not, as some have assumed, a young sportsman throwing his toys out of the cot.

At the heart of the Gill saga is said to be Athletics NZ’s inability to make Gill and his family feel valued enough. It should be stressed that none of the information in this article came from the Gill family, who would not comment. But Herald on Sunday inquiries have shown that Gill’s withdrawal has come after a series of incidents - none major individually but, when taken collectively, added up to the family feeling they were encountering a lack of support, a “tall poppy” reaction from some or, worse, that blocks were being put in Gill’s way.

Sources in the sport and close to the family have said: There was a whispering campaign against Gill, now stilled.

Some local track and field authorities said he was putting the shot illegally; throwing it instead of putting it. He has never been called for illegal technique in international meets and there has been no hint from any other quarter that anything was wrong with Gill’s action. Gill was called for foul throws when competing locally; the young thrower considered them vindictive and unsettling.

Gill and the family were put out when a strange Athletics NZ rule effectively barred Gill from appearing in his own national championships last month. The rule states that an athlete must be 19 or over to take part in the nationals. In the end, Gill was granted dispensation and did compete.

Athletics NZ considered the fuss to be a storm in a teacup - but it does seem an unnecessary hurdle for any young athlete to have to clear.

The qualification saga - where Gill felt he had thrown far enough to be named in the Olympic team but was omitted for the time being because he had recorded only the Olympic B standard (20.30m) - also came about because of the presence of another promising shot putter, Tom Walsh.

As published in the Herald on Sunday late last year, Walsh is also aiming for London and has thrown 18.83m with the senior shot, well behind Gill but, in theory at least, with a slim chance of making the qualification standard.

However, only one competitor can be taken to the Olympics if a B standard is attained so Athletics NZ decided they had to give Walsh time to qualify as well.

One source said: “I guess you can say that Athletics NZ are applying the letter of the law but they have clearly made Jacko and his family feel they have not done enough. Surely what they had to do was make it known to Jacko that he’d be going to London regardless.”

Former New Zealand champion and four-time Olympian Sir Les Mills has previously said Gill “could be to New Zealand what Peter Snell was in the early 1960s”.

“He is explosive, is extremely well co-ordinated, has excellent technique, and an amazing attitude for someone so young. All going well, this should translate into Jacko becoming the world’s greatest shot putter - barring accidents and other possible unforeseen circumstances, of course - and the world record and an Olympic gold medal or two, after London 2012, should not be beyond him.”

Mills said he knows nothing of the incidents said to have angered the Gills but added: "What is needed here is unconditional support for an athlete like this. They have to feel they are being supported. I don’t know anything about what is being alleged but I could definitely accept those sort of things might have happened. This sort of thing has been going on in this sport for a long time now.

“They seem to lurch from one disaster to another, even after they have been lucky enough to have athletes like Valerie Adams, Nick Willis and Kim Smith - all athletes they have not had a hand in developing at all. Now you get Jacko Gill coming along - whom they also have not developed - and now this happens. And they claim this to be a new era of New Zealand athletics … I just see them as almost a lost cause.”

Perhaps the strangest part of this story is the foul throws when an upset Gill confronted judges whom he felt were deliberately calling foul throws on him at Christchurch in February. Gill had interrupted his training to go to Christchurch to support the earthquake appeal along with Valerie Adams. In the warm-up, Gill broke the world junior shot put record, throwing over 23m.

“His head was right, he was fizzing and ready to go big,” said one source. “He was in front of 1500 people and what happens? He gets fouled three times out of four with the judges claiming he was touching the top of the steel rim at the back of the shot put circle - which is a foul throw, only Jacko knew he hadn’t touched the rim; he felt the judges were gunning for him, looking to find something wrong.”

Some of those involved in the whispering campaign against him were in attendance that day, which was why Gill felt he was coming in for ‘special treatment’.

Athletics NZ CEO Scott Newman said yesterday that they had a good relationship with Jacko and his family “at least as good as with any other athlete and family”.

He said he was not at Christchurch but had heard that Gill had been upset. The rule about not competing at the nationals was “not aimed at Jacko, nor did it come from the board or any staff member of Athletics NZ - it came from the clubs themselves.”

Newman said he had heard Gill had been fouled at a meeting in Australia a couple of years ago but did not think there was any “conspiracy”.

“We have been doing everything in our power to support Jacko - why would we do anything else? Sure, we could have done a couple of things better over the qualification issue but we have already acknowledged that. If anyone is suggesting, by linking these elements together, that there is a conspiracy, that is absolute twaddle.”

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10797326

[spike]

Very interesting how this has created such a fuss in NZ. From what I can gather the standard put forth in the shot put by NZ was only one that betters the B standard and as such NZ Athletics is not in a position to ratify a B potential throw by Mr Gill because if someone were to throw an A regardless of how unlikely it was thay would be shut out putting them in an embarressing position or could/would take Athletics NZ to the court of arbitration and probably win leaving NZ athletics further embarressed.

There is no doubt it should have been clearer in the selection policy but its better to sort this out now. In regards to pulling out or focusing on the Olympics that is up to the coach and athlete. I don’t see a reason why you could not compete in both and I am of the opinion that the Olympics is the Olympics and you just never know if you will get another chance. So why not focus on the juniors and if by Olympic Cutt-off date his current performance is good enough to go then let him go and enjoy the atmosphere. Now I realise this kid is a talent but there have been many freaky talented kids. Don’t get me wrong 20.30m+ or whatever he has thrown is good but, he will need to find 1.5-2m to be a medal contender at the big boys games.

So train for the juniors go and demolish the field maybe even set a junior world record and then with that enthusiasm and adrenalin head to the biggest game of them all and see what you can do…