Chew The F.A.T

Chew The F.A.T Hors d'oeuvres are your tasty morsels on a daily basis throughout the Athletics programme at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Today we pick up where we left off in our last podcast - Walks!

With Paris 2024 just around the corner, we're joined by one of the new crop of NZ athletes making big strides on the Kiwi stage. Jonah Cropp joins us to Chew the F.a. T on the wonderful world of walking ahead of his biggest test yet at the World U20 Championships in Lima.

Long-time coach Kerry Hill recently received the prestigious Arthur Eustace award in recognition of more than 50 years mentoring athletes across many different disciplines. From his reflections as an athlete at the 1974 Commonwealth Games to attaining life membership of the Doha Rugby Club, Kerry's storied life is fully explored in this convivial Chew the F.a. T chat.

March has been a magical month full of mystical moments & lasting memories. From Geordie's Beaming smile indoors to Preston's powerful performance in the cooling rain & every sprinkle of gold, silver & bronze in between. Tony & Mark review a period where Kiwis flew, threw & leapt into the forefront of the national sporting spectrum. Athletics NZ Competition Manager Jason Camero...

It's not like the F.a. T. Boys to be too PC but to kick off 2024 they're talking Potts, Porritt, Capital & Cooks...classic Kiwi athletic meets every one. With a dash of Australian analysis & a splash of news from further afield it's the recipe for a huge helping of F.a. T. chat from Roso & Rogers as the World Indoor Champs & Olympic Games loom large.

Dunedin dynamo Anna Grimaldi is a two-time Paralympic long jump gold medallist but she struggled with imposter syndrome after finding success so quickly as an athlete. Now as she prepares for Paris we hear from a rejuvenated jumper and sprinter confident about her right to perform on the biggest stage.

At the tender age of 22 Connor Bell has already hurled the discus further than any New Zealander. A youth Olympic & Commonwealth champion he has cleared the chasm to the senior ranks & with every international experience he steadfastly grows in stature. We discuss discus with one of the brightest prospects wearing a Kiwi singlet.

Eleven years after her first national title Sarah Drought has added two more in 2023 & posted PBs over the 10km & half-marathon distances. With two young children & a busy work life, how has she balanced it all to the point of being able to finish in the top 50 in the World Cross Country Championship? Sarah sums up her superb season in less than an hour as we wrap road running results...

As the seasons merge we review the World Athletics Championships where 19 Kiwis were Hungary for success. We also pick out the gems from the Diamond League Final in Eugene. As the cross country season concludes Down Under, young NZ representatives Bella Earl and Jamie Mora talk of their experiences in Australia and their prospective paths to US scholarships.

Murray "Scoop" McKinnon has been to nine World Athletics Championships as a journalist & once held up an International press conference so that a New Zealand champion could speak to the country's leading broadcaster, Paul Holmes. Hear more of Murray's momentous memories & his predictions for this year's 19-strong Kiwi contingent that have made it to Budapest for the 2023 edition.

New Zealand's Para Athletics World Championship team of seven secured nine medals across nine days of competition. Athletics New Zealand's Community Manager Hamish Meacheam, himself a coach of para athletes, reflects on the many highlights in the city of lights. Also a full beam spotlight on Geordie's stupendous steeplechase national record.

One of New Zealand's fastest female sprinters has returned to farm work during her off-season from West Texas A & M University & is turning heads in a Te Awamutu gym with her uniquely tailored workouts. Leah Belfield was born & raised on a dairy farm in rural Waikato. She represented the province in a host of different sports as a youngster but a sprint double in the 2015 NZ Secondary...

Javelin thrower Tori Peeters furthered her national record in Japan recently but the girl from Gore is far from satisfied with being the best in this country. As the world stage beckons Tori talks pointedly about success, failure, disappointment & delight.

Eliza McCartney leapt into our lives in 2016 with a brilliant Olympic bronze as a 19-year-old with a smile as wide as the Auckland Harbour Bridge. Two years later she soared to what is still the world's fifth highest women's vault of all time but there were warning signs of injury troubles which would ultimately cost her a trip to Tokyo & see her effectively start from scratch. Now a rebuilt &...

It may have been eight years since Josh Hawkins had set the New Zealand 110m Hurdles record in Brisbane but when he returned to the same venue in early April the signs were flashing neon that he was in the right shape to shave more from his own national mark. So it proved & now the eight times senior champion can look to the remainder of 2023 with optimism that even faster times are within his...

From Boston to Bathurst, the Wanamaker to Wellington, Tauranga terrier Sam Tanner has ripped into 2023 with the vigour you'd expect from New Zealand's leading middle distance man. With the national mile & 1500m titles locked away for the Summer, Tanner takes time out to Chew the Fat with one eye out the window on the tempting surf. At the tender age of 22 he already has Olympic, Commonwealth &...

Music to the ears of New Zealand Athletics fans are the performances of some of our finest young exponents of running, jumping & throwing. From Bell to Beamish, Kerr to Elliott & the Olivier brothers it has been an amazing month of rewritten records. Tony & Mark examine the breath-taking feats from our fastest feet in this Summer review of action both home & abroad as one of the mo...

We are back for 2023 and we’re joined by big shot Tom Walsh. The Nice Guy of NZ Field & Track chats to us about what makes this Timaru tin thrower tick. He tells us how he went from being average at a lot of things, to a World Champion. His love of smoothies and dislike of broadcast microphones.

As the year comes to an end, we chew over a massive 2022 for New Zealand Field & Track. Then the hosts are put in the hot seat as we learn a bit more about Tony and Mark and share a few laughs along the way. Thank you to everyone who has listened, shared and been a part of the show this year. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did making it. See you all in 2023!

From eastern Southland to the capital city via Texas & New Mexico the story of Hannah Miller is a complex one but when it comes to running, the longer the race the simpler it is for a young woman who has nailed four national titles in 2022 from 10k through to the marathon.

Off the back of a super successful track career of his own that has him high in all-time New Zealand best performances across four sprint disciplines, James Mortimer is plying his craft as a coach. With some of the country's top tearaway talent under his tutelage...think Hobbs, Hulls, Bing, Neal & more...James is jumping every hurdle to ensure that our next generation of speed has the tools to suc...

In the middle of this year James Preston became the third-fastest Kiwi of all time over 800m. In his sights are two Knights, Sir John Walker & the late Peter Snell. What's his back-story & what does the immediate future hold for the Karori kid?

Commonwealth champion & multiple medallist Julia Ratcliffe gives a glimpse inside the dark arts of the Hammer throw, an athletic discipline that has taken her from a back yard cage in Hamilton to all parts of the world over the last dozen years, driven by her Dad, Dave. Julia outlines her juggle with training & work as an economic analyst for the Reserve Bank & describes her Covid battle on the br...

Gear up to for a Marathon episode as we're are joined by Rod Dixon, 50 years on from his bronze medal at the Munich Olympics. He runs us through the highs and lows of his career from boyhood to boycotts and the beers inbetween.

We reach new heights this episode as we're joined by Commonwealth Games gold medalist Hamish Kerr. He tells us how the he went from the bottom of the south Island to the Top of the podium in Birmingham, what's next and why he enjoys "the lazy mans" discipline so much.