Being stuck on the other side of the world because of Covid is set to pay dividends for Wellington runner Hamish Carson who will be rewarded with a place at the World Athletics Championships in the United States.
Hamish Carson Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The 33-year-old has been based in Europe for the last 15 months, locked out of New Zealand by the Covid pandemic.
Three times he had his tickets booked to return home, only for Covid-related complications to deny him the chance to jump on the plane.
The seven time New Zealand 1500m champion left New Zealand at the beginning of last year with the intention of getting to the Tokyo Olympics.
However it wasn't to be as he failed to reach the qualifying standard.
"I went over with the intention of qualifying for Tokyo and I knew if I didn't make the team, it would probably be the end of my running career," he admits.
"I threw everything at it."
However, despite a series of impressive times when he went under 3:37 three times, he couldn't crack the Olympic 1500m standard of 3:35.
In fact it's been a series of near misses for Carson who has also had a couple of injuries to contend with in recent years.
After running the 1500m at the Rio 2016 Olympics, Carson missed the 2018 Commonwealth Games entry standard by 0.05 seconds.
He did qualify for the World Indoor Championships earlier this year, but fate was set to play a part again.
He twice dipped under the 3000m qualifying standard but a week before heading to Serbia he caught Covid and was unable to travel.
"It was really tough getting Covid, I'd trained really hard, qualified reasonably early for once and I felt I'd done the best preparation I could. But there are some things you can't control."
Another setback like that would perhaps be the writing on the wall for some people, but not him.
He ran a 35-second PB of 13:17.27 in a 5000m race in Spain in May and then an impressive display in his Diamond League debut in Paris helped book his spot in the New Zealand team.
"Now I'm onto my third go for a world event and luckily I've managed to get there."
Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Looking back Carson admitted if he had managed to get to Tokyo in 2021 and head home afterwards, there was a good chance he wouldn't be still going now.
"Really happy that my time over here I've been able to actually make it work and qualify for some things so when I do get home I'll know the time hasn't been wasted.
"You've just got to roll with it and sometimes when plans don't quite go the way you want you just need to see it as an opportunity."
However it hasn't been easy, especially financially.
"It's been pretty tough money wise but luckily I've had help from my family and my club Wellington Scottish while my friends in Belgium have helped a lot too."
Carson will run the 5000m at the World Championships in Oregon next week alongside fellow Kiwi Geordie Beamish.
And despite having spent so long away from home Carson won't fly straight back to New Zealand, he'll instead see out the rest of the northern season.
But first it's the world champs.
"My goal is to make the final and I think I can do that," he said. "I also think Geordie can do it too and it will be great to see both of us the final.
New Zealand has 20 athletes competing at the World Championships which begin on Saturday New Zealand time.
-RNZ / Athletics NZ
