Te Anau trio bound for World Championships in Austria
The Fiordland Athletics Club will have three people attending the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Austria this year.
Surrounded by the most beautiful maunga in the country - let’s say the world - it shouldn’t really be a surprise the Fiordland athletics club will send three representatives to the world mountain and trail running championships later this year.
A third-placed finish at the recent national mountain running champs in Dunedin has earned Dwight Grieve a place in the New Zealand senior men’s team for the pinnacle event in Innsbruck, Austria, over four days in June.
Shaun Cantwell, Grieve’s coach for the past decade, has also been selected to help guide the team.
And then there’s Sagar Khemani, a Whanau Ora navigator with Nga Kete who has been living in Te Anau for the past three years, who has been selected to represent India at the same event.
Despite coming from a modest running background which included a couple of half and full marathons, Khemani has blossomed as a runner under the tutelage of Cantwell while training alongside Grieve on the leg-sapping trails surrounding Ivon Wilson Park and the Te Anau golf course.
Together, Khemani and Grieve were also the ringleaders in establishing Te Anau’s Lake2Lake Trail Parkrun.
Strengthening the southern connection, Sarah Douglas, who is part of the Queenstown athletics club which comes under the aegis of Athletics Southland, has been named in the New Zealand senior women’s team.
At 45-years-old it’s an honour for Grieve to pull on a black singlet again (he represented New Zealand at the same event in 2018).
He’s grateful to his employer, Fish and Game Southland, and his long-suffering family for indulging his running obsession.
Grieve is relieved that his running is flourishing again after suffering from debilitating tendinopathy in his hamstrings. He was considering retirement - not from running entirely because he will run for as long as he’s able - but hanging up his competition spikes.
“I had actually mentioned the evil ‘r’ word and then all of a sudden it started to come right a bit.”
He’s also stoked for his good friend Sagar, who has not only passed on the skills and spices allowing Grieve to learn how to cook an outstanding curry, but has also provided a really motivational training partner.
“He’s been very dedicated and he’s got stuck into it. Sagar is a heck of a nice guy and he deserves everything he gets because everything he does is for others.”
The influence of Shaun Cantwell on his running career couldn’t be overstated, Grieve says.
“I wouldn’t be where I am without Shaun, there’s zero doubt about that. It’s 10 years he’s been coaching me now. We’ve been hanging on tenterhooks to hear about (Sagar), who has done a bit of running in the past but since he’s been coached by Shaun for just over a year, and training with me, he’s managed to get selected for India. It’s such a buzz to have three from Fiordland.”
The world championships is actually a combination of two former events, and includes four races over four days - a vertical run, a traditional up and down 15.5km mountain run (Sagar) and two trail runs with different lengths and ascents.
Grieve will be doing the shorter of the two trail runs, a 45km race which includes 3500m of ascent.
Along with training - Grieve is currently averaging about 125km a week - fundraising for the self-funded event is an important agenda item for the trio and a Givealittle page has been created to help support them.
https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/support-sagar-dwight-and-shaun-at-the-world
Kia mau te wehi!
Fantastic effort team! All the best!