The appearance at the International Track Meet of the NZ’s hottest sprint prospect in a generation, Eddie Osei-Nketia, has track and field fans in Christchurch buzzing with excitement.

The meet, to be held at Ngā Puna Wai on the 6th of February, is the long-awaited return of the full international one-day competition in the city for the first time in 10 years.
 
Osei-Nketia, the current Oceania 100m champion and son of national 100m record holder Gus Nketia, was the subject of a public arm-wrestle between New Zealand and Australia for his allegiance, with interest from rugby authorities on both sides of the Tasman thrown into the mix as well. He was a convincing winner of both the 100m and 200m events at last year’s national championships, and will contest the premier sprint at the International Track Meet, the 1-Group Men’s 200m. 
 
Providing the international competition in the field, and also chasing World Athletics Qualifying points at the Continental Tour Bronze level meet, will be Commonwealth Games representative Joseph Millar, up-and-coming Aucklander Hamish Gill (who was less than a tenth of a second behind Eddie in National 200m final), and South African born Tiaan Whelpton, now adopted as the local favourite in his new hometown of Christchurch.
 
The depth is even greater in the Christchurch City Council Women’s 200m, with the appearance at the meet of NZ’s top relay talent necessitating two races in that event. Headlining the race will be multiple NZ champion and World Championships representative Zoe Hobbs, who can expect to be pushed all the way by her 4x100m teammates from earlier in the programme. Co-favourite will be Nat Eady, who ran the fastest time in NZ in several years with a 23.35s in November, tantalisingly close to ITM recordholder Monique Williams’ National Resident Record of 23.15s. World Youth and University rep Georgia Hulls, outstanding youth prospect and NZSS Champion, 16 year old Nadia Evans, and Canterbury local Jordyn Blake, along with a number of other top sprinters from our relay squads will provide strong competition for these two.
 
Event director Paul Coughlan said today “Ideally we’d like to do what we normally do, and bring in some offshore talent to push our athletes on to greater performances, but in the current international climate, we have to work with what we have, and we’re very lucky to have some top class internationals right here in NZ and ready to put on a show. With the bonus points on offer for a Bronze level meet, all of our top athletes should be here chasing qualifying points”.
 
The return of the International Track Meet, almost 10 years after the Feb-2011 meet was cancelled due to the Christchurch earthquake, has resulted in the granting of Bronze status on the Oceania leg of the World Athletics Continental Tour, the equal highest status of any meet held in New Zealand.  Athletes earn bonus points for placings in this level of event, meaning that a performance in this event contributes more towards Olympic or World Championship qualifying than at a lower level event. For example, Osei-Nketia’s personal best time of 20.76 would be worth 1103 points in any ordinary athletics meet – if he were to repeat the performance at the ITM and win the race, that performance would be worth 60 extra points (1163), the equivalent of running 20.37s, or nearly half a second faster.  
 
General admission entry to the event on the 6th of Feb is free to the public, with space also still available in the hosting marquees for groups or corporate sponsors.  Donations can be contributed to the International Track & Field Trust, the charitable trust which owns and runs the event.
 
Further information, including the draft programme for the event, is available on the event website -internationaltrackmeet.nz

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Article added: Monday 18 January 2021