Hamblin zeroes in on Commonwealth Games

New Zealand middle distance runner Nikki Hamblin specialises in flying underneath the radar.

With little apparent effort and even less fanfare, the slightly-built 800-1500m specialist has quietly slipped into the top tier of world athletics. And if her low-key mix-and-match training programme keeps injury at bay, Hamblin must rate a top chance at this year's Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

The British-born runner's inclusion in last year's world athletics championships was held up by delays in her New Zealand citizenship, but the 21-year-old made the most of her chances once she got there.

She missed out on the 1500m final by one place -- a place taken by Moroccan runner Mariem Alaoui Selsouli, who qualified in the top 12 but did not run after being warned she was provisionally suspended after returning a positive drugs test.

Hamblin finished sixth in her semifinal, clocking a respectable four minutes 10.96 seconds after inexperience earlier saw her crash out of the 800m, floored in a collision which destroyed any chance of progressing to the next round.

But if the world championships were disappointing, the Cambridge-based Hamblin admits she was more than satisified with her efforts in her first European season.

Her times plummeted -- in a seven-week period she ran her four fastest 800m times ever, the slowest a respectable two minutes 02.72, the fastest a near New Zealand resident's record at 2min 00.9sec.

She also lowered her 1500m time to four minutes 08.52 seconds, and holds seven of the top 10 performances in 2009, all set between May and August last year.

Now ranked in the top 16 in the world over 1500m, Hamblin has qualified for Sparc's elite athlete funding Performance Enhancing Grant programme.

The 800m and 1500m national records, both held by Athens Olympian Toni Hodgkinson, are tantalisingly close at 1min 58.25sec and 4min 06.23sec and now she is ranked in the world's top 16 over 1500m, Hamblin has qualified for Sparc's elite athlete funding Performance Enhancing Grant programme.

With her propensity towards injury, however, neither Hamblin nor coach Chris Pilone are getting too carried away with piling on the training load leading into the Games.

"The main target for the year is the Comm Games, which isn't until October so we don't have a definite schedule. We'll just see how things pan out," Hamblin told NZPA today.

A niggling hip injury which surfaced early this month has slowed her down somewhat, but it's a situation to which Hamblin has become accustomed as she has struggled with injury on and off for much of her career.

"I do quite a lot of biking, aqua jogging, swimming and gym work, but I've been pretty sound since Chris has coached me.

"It's a bit annoying right now because we were going to start racing and some faster work on the track, which is my favourite part of training. But I'd rather we get it sorted properly."

Having already bettered the qualifying marks for New Delhi, Hamblin now plans another European sojourn, possibly beginning in May, as she looks to increase her international racing experience.

"If you're going to run a PB, you're going to run it in Europe. For me, I had to get used to racing with so many girls around me.

"In New Zealand, you don't get that, but in Europe there might be five girls fighting for the same position on the track and so you have to be a bit aggressive."

- NZPA