Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks EDB. Follow
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Speaker 1: This is Sporcefix Howard by News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2: Hello there, and welcome into a new week and to
Speaker 2: a new edition of the Sports Fix podcast for Monday,
Speaker 2: the tenth of March. I'm Jason Pine. Good to have
Speaker 2: you listening in. Another big sporting weekend is in the books,
Speaker 2: and one of the most dramatic parts of it was
Speaker 2: the dead heat in the final of the men's fifteen
Speaker 2: hundred meters at the National Track and Field Champs in Dunedin.
Speaker 2: Sam Tanner and Sam Ruth dead heating and sharing the
Speaker 2: national title. They also share a coach. Craig Kirkwood is
Speaker 2: the coach of both Sam's. He joins us today on
Speaker 2: the Sports Fix podcast. We're in the chamber as well
Speaker 2: with Elijah Fihu, who in the last few hours actually
Speaker 2: has been at a Warriors media session. What sort of
Speaker 2: field did he get coming out of the Warriors after
Speaker 2: their first up heavy defeat to the Raiders in Vegas
Speaker 2: As they look ahead to the next assignment on Friday
Speaker 2: night at home against the Sea Eagles. We'll talk cricket
Speaker 2: and Super Rugby as well, So lots to get into,
Speaker 2: so let's get into it. In other news, let's get
Speaker 2: underway with the big sports stories around today. The Black
Speaker 2: Camps have lost the Champions Trophy cricket final to India
Speaker 2: by four wickets in Dubai, and that's going away to
Speaker 2: the friends. What's the Championships and it's another acco clean
Speaker 2: Lake champions Cindya chasing down two hundred and fifty two
Speaker 2: to beat New Zealand by four wickets with an over
Speaker 2: to spare. Shane van Gisbergen's been tangled up in a
Speaker 2: multi car wreck at the latest NASCAR race in Phoenix.
Speaker 2: A twenty four car with William Byron would be a
Speaker 2: little bit better troubling the back and two cars in
Speaker 2: the wall.
Speaker 3: Big wreck.
Speaker 2: They're still racking the dam agenda Shane Van Gisbergen's race.
Speaker 2: He ultimately finished thirty first and keep we Stephen Elk
Speaker 2: has won for the first time this season on golf
Speaker 2: PGA Champions Tour, beating America and Jason Karen On the
Speaker 2: first playoff hole at Arizona's La Palomit Country Club.
Speaker 3: Plays this pipe for Birdie to win the Collar guard Classic.
Speaker 1: It do you have it?
Speaker 2: Stephen Alker.
Speaker 1: Dissecting the sporting agenda. It's Sportsfix with Jason Vine on.
Speaker 2: The Sports Fix podcast. Incredible scenes at the New Zealand
Speaker 2: Track and Field Champs in Dunedin yesterday, two time Olympians
Speaker 2: Sam Tanner and fifteen year old prodigy Sam Ruth sharing
Speaker 2: gold in the men's fifteen hundred meters after a dead
Speaker 2: heat in the final. Officials unable to separate the two
Speaker 2: following a photo finish, both recording a time of three
Speaker 2: minutes forty four point three to one seconds. Craig Kirkwood
Speaker 2: coaches both runners and joins us Now. Craig in real time,
Speaker 2: who did you think had won?
Speaker 3: To be honest, I had absolutely no Yeah. Coming down
Speaker 3: the straight of look Tanna was going to target and
Speaker 3: then Sam Ruth hit your deathity roll up on the
Speaker 3: shoulder and almost leandham. So yeah, I had no idea
Speaker 3: at the time, and even watching the footage now, I
Speaker 3: still can't think it.
Speaker 2: How uncommon is a dead heat in I know it happens.
Speaker 2: I think it probably happens more often in the shorter
Speaker 2: distances in a fifteen hundred meter race. Have you seen
Speaker 2: a dead heat before.
Speaker 3: No, never not down to about thousands of a second.
Speaker 3: There's really some kind of separation there. Known. I've never
Speaker 3: seen that before my last.
Speaker 2: So presumably, yeah, so presumably the ideal scenario for you
Speaker 2: as their coach, was for the two of them to
Speaker 2: take the top two places, which they did. As it
Speaker 2: turned out, they shared top place. It looked as though
Speaker 2: Sam Tanner was looking to burn some of the others
Speaker 2: off during the race. Was that the plan?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we we'd talked pre rate and we'd come
Speaker 3: up with a plan for for the first five hundred
Speaker 3: just be what it will be, and then Sam Tanner
Speaker 3: to take the lead and then just increase the tempt
Speaker 3: and then try and put everyone under pressure and hopefully
Speaker 3: sam Ruth was strong enough to hold on and yeah,
Speaker 3: take first and second. And they went one step better and
Speaker 3: got two firsts. So yeah, pretty impressive that they managed
Speaker 3: to pull off the plan and actually make you better.
Speaker 2: You said before Sam Ruth had the audacity down the
Speaker 2: home straight, did you did? What were you seeing in
Speaker 2: that last one hundred meters?
Speaker 3: I thought Sam Tanner had done enough to hold him out,
Speaker 3: but yeah, just he folded a little bit in the
Speaker 3: last twenty and Sam Ruth just yeah, just came up
Speaker 3: on his shoulder and yeah, just tried to outlean him.
Speaker 3: So it was bloody impressive running for a fifteen year
Speaker 3: old to have the have the nouse to be able
Speaker 3: to give that, give that a track. So it's pretty
Speaker 3: cool to watch and he's an extremely talented young man.
Speaker 2: How unusual is it for a fifteen year old to
Speaker 2: be doing what Sam Ruth is doing.
Speaker 3: There's only been a couple of athletes of that kind
Speaker 3: of age bracket doing what is doing at the moment.
Speaker 3: And so you're talking about Yaka Binger Britson, who's you know,
Speaker 3: world renound and you know, considered the best at the distance,
Speaker 3: and a young Australian guy eighteen, cam Myers who's done
Speaker 3: the similar similar things over the last few years and
Speaker 3: he's kind of tracking them the same way they have,
Speaker 3: So it's pretty impressive.
Speaker 2: What is most impressive about the way he goes about
Speaker 2: his middle distance running, Uh, well.
Speaker 3: There's a few things. So his training is is pretty
Speaker 3: low key. He's really just enjoying running with his mates
Speaker 3: and having having a good time and being part of
Speaker 3: a squad that is you know, training really hard. He's
Speaker 3: got a group of guys who he trains with, and
Speaker 3: you know, they're just all all good mates and to
Speaker 3: hang out and they just love it. So that really impressive.
Speaker 3: He's got an amazing racing brain. If you watch him
Speaker 3: in the race, he's various duty. He knows exactly what
Speaker 3: he's doing tactically and those some of those things you
Speaker 3: can't teach. It just it's just intuition. And he kind
Speaker 3: of gets a ride every time, so you know, and
Speaker 3: he's also really humble, Like you know, he had the
Speaker 3: great send Sam a message afterwards after the racing to say,
Speaker 3: you know, thanks for the race and it was great
Speaker 3: being you know, part of what we did together. And
Speaker 3: I guess really appreciative and that that goes a long way.
Speaker 2: Indeed it does. Most fifteen year olds are still growing.
Speaker 2: If he were to shoot up a few more inches,
Speaker 2: would that help him or hinder him?
Speaker 3: We'll see, I guess I don't know. I don't know
Speaker 3: the answer to that. Probably help him. Yeah, though if
Speaker 3: you look at the crop of the best fifteen hundred
Speaker 3: runs in the world, they are a little bit taller
Speaker 3: these days, and holding your space on the track is
Speaker 3: very important and you know, for the bit more physical mass,
Speaker 3: you can hold your space a little bit better.
Speaker 2: But I guess you look at a guy like Sam Tanner,
Speaker 2: who's not a big guy, is he he seems to
Speaker 2: do it. He seems to do okay.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's a bit of an exception to that all.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I mean most of them are. Most of
Speaker 3: them are bigger and taller and potentially a little bit
Speaker 3: kind of more physical.
Speaker 2: You know, when you're planning his training pro pros, how
Speaker 2: careful do you have to be with his loading, recovery
Speaker 2: things like that, given that he is still just fifteen
Speaker 2: years of age.
Speaker 3: Yeah, extremely careful. Would be really easy to get carried
Speaker 3: away and chuck him into some training that will I'll
Speaker 3: give to Samtana, but it's yeah, you just got to
Speaker 3: keep in mind that he is fifteen, and he is
Speaker 3: still growing and he's got a lot of time left
Speaker 3: in the sport, and wheth have to be careful that
Speaker 3: we nurture that load and just bring him through carefully
Speaker 3: in training. What he does in racing is kind of
Speaker 3: far exceeds where he is in training, but that's just
Speaker 3: what it is.
Speaker 2: So you mentioned yak Ingerbritson before the Norwegian. He's currently
Speaker 2: twenty four great. Britain's Josh Kerr is twenty seven. American
Speaker 2: Cole Hawker, who sensacially one Golden Paris last year, is
Speaker 2: twenty three years of age. But one of our greats,
Speaker 2: Nick willis one Bronze at Rio in twenty sixteen when
Speaker 2: he was thirty three. So when do middle distance runners
Speaker 2: typically find their peak?
Speaker 3: Yeah, probably somewhere in their mid twenty though, would suggest
Speaker 3: Mick was probably a little bit of an outlier and
Speaker 3: that he had a really long career and was in
Speaker 3: the sport for a a very long time. He was
Speaker 3: one of the best in the world at twenty years
Speaker 3: old as well, So it's yeah, he's got cam rous,
Speaker 3: got a long time left in the sport, that's for sure.
Speaker 2: So given what he's doing now, could he Sam Ruth
Speaker 2: feasibly go to the Commonwealth Games next year at the
Speaker 2: age of seventeen. Could he go to the Olympics in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty eight while he's still a teenager?
Speaker 3: Those are certainly part of the plan. So we'll see
Speaker 3: what happens in the next year and a half and
Speaker 3: whether he can get himself qualified to the Common Games
Speaker 3: and where the Olympic committee seems you decide that he's
Speaker 3: ready for that and happy to select him. We'll just
Speaker 3: have to wait and see, but.
Speaker 2: Hopefully, hopefully, indeed exciting times for both of the SAMs.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for joining us, Craig, I appreciate your
Speaker 2: time and congratulations on what you've done with these two athletes.
Speaker 2: Craig Kirkwood, the coach of both Sam Tanner and Sam Ruth.
Speaker 2: Really good Champions Trophy campaign for the black Caps came
Speaker 2: to an end last night with defeat by India in
Speaker 2: the final. We shouldn't take away from the very good
Speaker 2: cricket New Zealand played for the most part in this tournament,
Speaker 2: with the semi final win over South Africa one of
Speaker 2: our best performances in fifty over cricket in recent memory.
Speaker 2: But I just wonder if we got our selection right
Speaker 2: for the final now. Matt Henry's absence was obviously a
Speaker 2: big factor. Our best bowler at the tournament, top wicket taker,
Speaker 2: able to trouble the world's best batters with his guile,
Speaker 2: variations and pace and general all round bowling excellence. When
Speaker 2: he was ruled out, Mitt Santner and Gary Stead decided
Speaker 2: to go like for like and brought in a seema
Speaker 2: in Nathan Smith. Now, hindsight is always twenty twenty, I
Speaker 2: know that, but the scoreboard will show Nathan Smith bowled
Speaker 2: just two overs and went for eleven and over our
Speaker 2: three seamers, he Will O'Rourke and Cole Jamison combined for
Speaker 2: just fourteen overs. In India's innings, thirty five of the
Speaker 2: forty nine overs we bowled were from spinners Mitchell Sentner,
Speaker 2: Michael Bracewell ch and Revendra Or bowling ten and Glenn
Speaker 2: Phillips chipping in with five. We didn't really need Nathan Smith,
Speaker 2: so I wonder whether taking in an extra batter Mark
Speaker 2: Chapman would have been a better idea. Now I'm not
Speaker 2: saying it would have changed the result, but given that
Speaker 2: India have relied so much on spin bowling and the
Speaker 2: final was played in Dubai, where they've played all their
Speaker 2: games with those spinners, I reckon we could have gambled
Speaker 2: on two seamers and stiffened up the batting of it. Anyway,
Speaker 2: what's done is done, and the lost to India doesn't
Speaker 2: take away from the way we played across the tournament.
Speaker 2: Special mentions to a couple of players, Rich and Ravendra
Speaker 2: player of the tournament, a couple of hundreds in his
Speaker 2: fore innings, continuing to provide evidence that he is absolutely
Speaker 2: and totally the real deal and will undoubtedly be one
Speaker 2: of our best ever cricketers by the time he ends
Speaker 2: his career, which is hopefully a long way down the track.
Speaker 2: And Michael Bracewell, who only really started bowling spin seriously
Speaker 2: a few years ago, forming a key part of our
Speaker 2: attack with wickets and economy, while also being going to
Speaker 2: hit the ball pretty well with the bat in any
Speaker 2: situation and unbeaten fifty in the final the latest evidence
Speaker 2: of that there's a lot to like about our white
Speaker 2: ball side right now, with Mitchell Santnap adding his own
Speaker 2: unique leadership style into the mix as well. They may
Speaker 2: not have won the silverware, but a silver medal ain't
Speaker 2: too bad.
Speaker 1: The Chamber is now in session on SPORTSFX.
Speaker 2: On the SPORTSFX podcast. Time for us to pop inside
Speaker 2: the Chamber on Monday, The People's Chamber featuring Elijah who
Speaker 2: joins us. Now, Elijah, you're just back from a Warriors
Speaker 2: media session, so without any further ado, I want to
Speaker 2: go straight there. What sort of what sort of mood
Speaker 2: did you find them in upon their return from Vegas,
Speaker 2: with that lost to the Raiders probably still fresh.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it seems like a while since we last heard
Speaker 4: from the Warriors, given they played a while ago and
Speaker 4: they've had this long time and around heading into their
Speaker 4: second week game against Manly on Friday. In terms of
Speaker 4: the mood around camp, I think they understand what went
Speaker 4: wrong in that opening defeats by the Raiders. Andrew Roopster
Speaker 4: pointed out it was really the first twenty minutes where
Speaker 4: the team was rushing out of the line, they were
Speaker 4: trying to be aggressive. The team wasn't really coordinated, and
Speaker 4: I don't know if that was due to I guess
Speaker 4: over excitement or being too eager by the occasion of
Speaker 4: starting of kicking off the NRL season, or being in
Speaker 4: Las Vegas, but the Andrew roops are pointed to the
Speaker 4: start there and then much Barnett's the co captain, brought
Speaker 4: up a lot of the tries scored by the Raiders
Speaker 4: were more individual moments and that if they you know,
Speaker 4: sort of counted those individual moments in the Warriors definitely
Speaker 4: would have been a lot more competitive in camera. So
Speaker 4: those was probably some of the key takeaways. But hopefully
Speaker 4: that they're back and mount smart this week, they can
Speaker 4: that the fans can get behind them and they can
Speaker 4: get a lot more motivated and hopefully get this season
Speaker 4: on track.
Speaker 2: It's a tough hush though, isn't it against the Sea Eagles,
Speaker 2: who on Saturday put forty two on the Cowboys looked
Speaker 2: really really impressive. And then following that it's another home
Speaker 2: game for the Warriors against the Roosters, who themselves actually
Speaker 2: were beaten fairly soundly by the Broncos on Thursday night.
Speaker 2: Let's not worry about that, but manly, that's a big
Speaker 2: That's a big game on Friday, isn't it.
Speaker 3: Oh very much. So.
Speaker 4: They've got a very physical forward pack and that's going
Speaker 4: to be a huge test for the likes of James Fisher,
Speaker 4: Harris and Mitch Barnett's. But you've also got guys like
Speaker 4: Dynan Walker and Aaron Clark and their impact is going
Speaker 4: to be important to this forward pack some I'm very
Speaker 4: excited to see how they cope with that. And then
Speaker 4: of course Dally Cherry Evans the experience and the halves.
Speaker 4: With Cherry Evans going up against Luke Medcalf, who I
Speaker 4: guess is still settling into the half back role since
Speaker 4: the retirements of Seawan Johnson, so I mean Andrew Rister,
Speaker 4: he's fully behind or backing and Luke Medcalf to adjust
Speaker 4: to the half back role. Obviously preaching a little bit
Speaker 4: of patients from fans that you know he might not
Speaker 4: get things right straight away, but it's going to build
Speaker 4: as the season goes on. But a big test going
Speaker 4: up against the Daly chair Evans.
Speaker 2: Much more to come on the Warriors across the weak
Speaker 2: as we had towards their game on Friday night against
Speaker 2: the Sea Eagles. Super Rugby Pacific. We're now four rounds in.
Speaker 2: Most teams have played four games, some of it the
Speaker 2: bye of course, and have only played three. Apart from
Speaker 2: the fact you have to scroll all the way to
Speaker 2: the bottom of the table to find my Hurricanes and
Speaker 2: the Blues. Has this been one of the better first
Speaker 2: months of a Super Rugby season that you can remember?
Speaker 4: It has to be. It's been so exciting what's been
Speaker 4: happening out on the park, the highest scores that have
Speaker 4: been put up, the free flowing rugby, and it seems
Speaker 4: like we hear the buzzword fan centric and it seems
Speaker 4: like that's finally kicking and segear in this opening month.
Speaker 4: You see the fantasy aspect of it has really helped
Speaker 4: out post game I guess as an example, one in
Speaker 4: a PACIFICA post game with their up in North Harbor Stadium,
Speaker 4: citing autographs, taking photos for fans, and you know, doing
Speaker 4: making sure everyone there gets what they need out of
Speaker 4: meeting their favorite players. So I think, for sure, like
Speaker 4: I've never been more excited to get behind Super rugby
Speaker 4: and I'm enjoying it.
Speaker 2: I think also what the weekend showed was that there
Speaker 2: is true jeopardy when it comes to this competition. Without
Speaker 2: wanting to labor the point, both your Blues and my
Speaker 2: Hurricanes lost games that they were probably favorites and right.
Speaker 2: The Blues were probably favorites to beat the Brumbies on
Speaker 2: Friday night they lost twenty one to twenty. The Hurricanes
Speaker 2: were probably favorites to beat more one of Pacific A
Speaker 2: Saturday night they lost forty thirty one. Not only that,
Speaker 2: the Fiji and Dreuer beat the Chiefs, who hadn't lost
Speaker 2: all season, and the Force, who had been pretty good,
Speaker 2: were roundly sent on their way by the Warritors. The
Speaker 2: outlier actually was probably the Crusaders against the Reds. So
Speaker 2: actually you don't really know, do you, from game to game,
Speaker 2: from week to week, who's going to win? And isn't
Speaker 2: that what we've always wanted, an even competition like.
Speaker 4: This exactly the even competition. It's the unpredictability of super
Speaker 4: rugby that's coming to play and I think if you're
Speaker 4: talking about the Australian teams, the demise of the Melbourne
Speaker 4: Rebels has definitely helped out and we've seen the quality
Speaker 4: across the board for the Australian teams and they've made
Speaker 4: their matches whenever they come up against New Zealand sides
Speaker 4: a lot more competitive. I guess the Crusaders Reds probably
Speaker 4: isn't the best example, but in the games that they
Speaker 4: have played, it's a lot more competitive and I'm really
Speaker 4: excited for that fact. I guess the question now is
Speaker 4: can that standard hold on for the rest of the season.
Speaker 2: Yeah? No, And that's the question that is going to
Speaker 2: be asked, but it's one I'm really interested in finding
Speaker 2: out the answer to. Like you, I'm just very I'm
Speaker 2: already looking ahead to next weekend to see, you know
Speaker 2: what the games are, which you know The only team
Speaker 2: who have at one hundred percent record are the war Retars.
Speaker 2: They've played three one three. Who would have predicted that
Speaker 2: at the start of the season. The war Tars, the
Speaker 2: Reds and the Brumbies are all in the top six.
Speaker 2: I know it's a tight table and as I say,
Speaker 2: you know, two of last season's better teams, the champions
Speaker 2: the Blues and the regular season table toppers, came down
Speaker 2: the bottom of the pile. Like again, I don't want
Speaker 2: to labor that point too much, but there is there
Speaker 2: is a true evenness and unpredictably unpredictability about this competition
Speaker 2: this year and that can only mean good things. Just
Speaker 2: before we exit the chamber, black Caps Overnight came close. Well,
Speaker 2: they got to the final, but they were I think
Speaker 2: probably reasonably comprehensibly beaten by India or is that you'll
Speaker 2: read on it?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would say so. I mean you could maybe
Speaker 4: chucking asterisk next to India winning because of you know,
Speaker 4: them playing in Dubai and them having that as their
Speaker 4: home base throughout the tournaments due to the tensions with
Speaker 4: the host nation Pakistan. But I guess New Zealand for
Speaker 4: the hand, all the cars that there were doubts managed.
Speaker 4: They played Austin throughout the tournaments and the Russian Revenger
Speaker 4: was a standout being named player of the Tournaments. Being
Speaker 4: Philip showed that why he's the best field in the world.
Speaker 4: So they're definitely some positives. But yeah, it's a shame
Speaker 4: that they couldn't come out with the wind there against India.
Speaker 2: Indeed, all right, well that was a busy sporting weekend
Speaker 2: wrapped up or some of it in the last six
Speaker 2: and a half minutes. Another busy week are sporting weekend
Speaker 2: or week to come with a weekend at the end
Speaker 2: of its starting with the Warriors on Friday nights, So
Speaker 2: lots to get our teeth into. Elijah, thanks for joining
Speaker 2: us in the chamber. As always, we'll do it again
Speaker 2: next Monday.
Speaker 4: Thank you, payy.
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