BIO

I was born in Taupo, New Zealand on 1 March 1979 and am the youngest of three children. After a couple of years my family moved to a small South Island town called Timaru. At the age of 8 my family moved to Wellington which I still consider to be my home today. It was in 1987 that I first started losing my sight. Soon cricket became difficult to play, writing became tougher as I could not see what I was writing and reading became impossible without significant magnification. Running however was still possible and I joined the local Kapiti Harrier club with my father and sister. In 1992 I started at Wellington College and met my coach Neville Paul who then was managing the Cross Country and Athletics teams. As part of both the Cross Country and Athletics team I began instilling some key principals of middle distance running and improved my performance accordingly. In my last year at school I was selected as the first non-travelling reserve for the New Zealand team at the Atlanta Paralympics. From 1997-2000 I attended Victoria University and achieved a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature.

During this time my athletic performances were steadily improving until a stress fracture in early 2000 ruled me out of running for almost five months. The road back to fitness was swift and I was lucky enough with some great support from my physio and training partner Ben Ruthe I was able to make the start line for the 800 and 1500 metres at the Sydney Paralympic Games. The two Silver medals that I won at the Games were undoubtably the highlight of my career to date but it was a bitter sweet feeling as I was made aware of another stress fracture in the opposite foot to the previous one just days before my final race. Following the celebrations of two Silver medals I was put into cast for six weeks and forced to take another four months off running. Struggling with frustrations of two major injuries and finding it difficult to get motivated for other events my running career had hit a rough patch. A new full time job with the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind coupled with long time training partner Ben Ruthe moving to Auckland made for a tough 2001. Despite this my work with Sport Wellington, speaking to various community groups and schools served to help ignite a flame that was dwindling.

In late 2001 my passion for the sport returned as Nev had a strong squad of eight athletes including Ben who had returned from Auckland to be part of the ‘Flying Kiwi’ squad. The 2001/02 season was one of break throughs with my 1500 metre time being lowered by four seconds. This lead nicely into the IPC World Championships in France, in July of 2002, where I claimed my first ever World title over 800 metres. My win was over the previously unbeaten Tunisian Maher Bouallegue. By 2004 my life was going great I had confidence in my running, I had a settled relationship with my now fiancé Lisa, and my job at the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind was going well. On September 26 of that year I experienced what is to date the highlight of my running career winning the Gold medal over 800 metres at the Paralympic Games.

For the eighteen months between the Athens Games and April 2006 I continued working at the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind as the Recreation Advisor, I continued my running and came to the decision along with my fiancé that the UK would be the best place to come for six months to experience Europe and the United Kingdom, to enhance my running career with increased racing opportunities over the Northern summer.