NZ speedsters target relays for Commonwealth Games, world championship selection

Photo: Kerry Marshall/Photosport

New Zealand's fastest sprinters have taken their international ambitions into their own hands - and they've found an unlikely source of support for their endeavours.

Less than a month after watching national recordholder Eddie Osei-Nketia change allegiances, many of his former rivals have joined him across the Tasman to participate in an Australian national sprint camp focused on relays.

Under a community-driven initiative known as 'Black Batons', the Kiwi speedsters have joined forces to push for Commonwealth Games and world championships selection this year.

Seventeen sprinters paid their own way to attend the week-long camp on the Gold Coast this month, tapping into Athletics Australia resources, as they try to qualify for the world stage.

The scheme has been masterminded by local coaches Nuree Greenhalgh and Sonia Waddell.

Greenhalgh was a junior champion over 400m/800m, but has found her niche as an up-and-coming mentor for sprinters, guiding Lex Revell-Lewis to a men's national 400 metres record (45.88s) and Kendra Scally Tu'i to a women's junior 200 metres mark (23.52s) last summer.

Waddell is simply a part of Kiwi sporting folklore. Daughter of All Blacks flanker Alistair Scown, she was a junior 400m hurdles champion on the track, before switching to rowing, where she reached two Olympic single sculls finals and won world championship silver in the quad.

As a cyclist, she won a national time trial title and then piloted partial