James Mortimer: Zoe Hobbs Head Coach on her opening heat, qualifying for the women's 100m semi-finals

Zoe Hobbs is safely through to the semi-finals of the women's 100 metres. 

She finished second in her heat with a season's best time of 11.08 seconds. 

Hobbs' time is the 14th best in the field, with Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith clocking the quickest time at 10.87 seconds. 

Head Coach James Mortimer joined D'Arcy Waldegrave to recap her opening heat.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the All Sport Breakfast podcast with Darcy
Waldegrave from News Talk ZB.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
We'll join now in the All Sport Breakfast by James Mortimer.
Here's the coach of, among others, Zoey Hobbs, who's had
a very good campaign so far. Definitely not over, but
great success to start with. James, welcome to the show.
A second place in a heat. Talk us through how
Zoe ran and what she achieved and welcome to the show.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Oh, thank you, yeah, live from the defront. Now. Yeah,
it's been a pretty interesting build up.

Speaker 4 (00:41):
Just haven't found many good races in terms of conditions
and things leading into this, but we knew she.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
Was in pretty good form with training and things like that.

Speaker 4 (00:50):
So to get out there this morning and have a
good run and get through to the semi finals and
relative ease and and then a good time is a
positive step.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
You say relative ease based on what the result, the
way she ran, what happened afterwards.

Speaker 5 (01:08):
What says ease to you, James.

Speaker 4 (01:11):
I'm just the way she executed the race. She had
a really good start, really good first sixty. She had
one of the favorites outside of Julian Alfred from San Lucia,
so she knew she had someone to go out with,
and I mean she just found herself in second place
there with about sixteen seventy meters ago, and she just
said she felt comfortable and just could open up and

(01:33):
cruise through, which is what you want in these early heats.

Speaker 5 (01:36):
As far as the time is concerned, you must be
wrapped about that.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:42):
Yeah, I mean the fastest time of the season so far,
eleven o' eight and into a slight head wind as well,
which she was the only one across the eight heats
who actually had.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
A good wind.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
When you look back at the reel and what do
you do from now between the semi phone and.

Speaker 5 (01:56):
What steps do you take? What is your process with her?

Speaker 4 (02:02):
I mean the race was pretty much, you know, the
way we wanted to execute really good starts. She's a
resting starter, so you know, to give her to feel
confident in that first sixty meters is a big thing,
and really just to feel out the track as well.
I mean it's a brand new fast Mondo track. You know,
the first time at the Olympics is a lot of

(02:23):
nerves and things like that, so she can kind of
just you know, sit back now leading into the semney
finals and we can really just let work.

Speaker 3 (02:33):
You know, she's got to get.

Speaker 4 (02:35):
Top two in the semifinal to make the final, a
semi final, inter the final. Sorry, and you know she's
she's in a semifinal that she can do that, which
is exciting. There's some pretty big names and in the
semi final number two. So yeah, she's just got to
go out there and just leave it all out there
and if she makes that final, that's the numbers.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
James Mortimer joins us from the start New France line
is a bit strange.

Speaker 5 (03:01):
It's so be it. We've got you on here. That's
the key thing here, James.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
White, How is Zoe the kind of athlete that reacts
to the atmosphere she's in, i e. Being in a
place like that, or very much an athlete that just
cuts off from around there and just concentrate on what
she's doing.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
I mean, she always delivers on the big stage.

Speaker 4 (03:23):
You know, she enjoys the pressure and she can respond
to it really well.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
And that's what we've kind of just been telling her.
Go on to this.

Speaker 4 (03:31):
You know, a couple of days ago, she was feeling
a bit flat and concerned. We're not concerned, just.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
You know, a little bit nervous, she could say.

Speaker 4 (03:40):
Leading into this school that was like we knew that
the Olympics was going to just lift her and.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
Get the time that she was looking for. And yeah she.

Speaker 4 (03:50):
Will, She'll soak it into tomorrow night and just yeah,
like I said, just leave it all out there in
the semifinal because it's going to it will be tough
to get into that final.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
But nothing to say that she can't do that.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
When you look at the run itself, you since she
got off to a great start from a technical point
in view, are there any areas you think need to
lift or hold on to orst it can let you
do that? Only a day out from such a big
race change.

Speaker 4 (04:16):
Really, No, like it, it's all being done. It's now
about just executing what she did this morning and just
letting the occasion rise in effort even more, you know,
just find.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
That a little bit extra and she'll she can.

Speaker 4 (04:31):
I mean, she's definitely informed to run a good ten nineties.
So if she can do that tomorrow, I think so
that that would be enough to get into the final,
which was again awesome.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
And how do athletes react when it comes to a
brand new track doesn't have any effect at all, It
just is what it is.

Speaker 4 (04:49):
I mean, if you're not quite one hundred percent, it
can be quite dangerous obviously because they then just being
super fast. So you've got to be able to control
control the limbs and control the speed.

Speaker 3 (04:59):
Just as much.

Speaker 4 (05:01):
I mean we came down here yesterday and did some
more much stay outs and things like that on the
open tree, so we've got to actually feel it and
really work out. You know where the track can bounce
back and you know how fast that it connection be.
So sometimes it's just letting the track get back and

(05:21):
you've been able to control that.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
And just quickly the support amongst the other athletes who
are going to be in the athletics program, I'm presuming
that the New Zealanders are pretty tight there.

Speaker 4 (05:33):
James, Yeah, I mean the athletics team is very tight.
Seventeen of us here now, I mean where Yeah, that's
what we're sort of down here now just to support
Jacko and Tim and their shot put heats and you know,
we'll come down here and watch all the athletes and
support them, and then the crowd here is just phenomenal.
Even nine o'clock this morning, there was sixty seventy thousand

(05:56):
people just watching the heats of the captain, so they're
very vocal and it's just a phenomenal, amazing happens for instead.

Speaker 5 (06:06):
So I'll beat you, wish your head your spikes on.
Huh hi?

Speaker 4 (06:09):
Yes, yeah, I actually came here in two thousand and
three for the World Chairs so.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
But it definitely wasn't as splash as this.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
Brilliant Hey, James Mortimon, thanks so much for joining us
seeing Zoe our regards, wishing you the best for the
semi final and on to the final.

Speaker 5 (06:24):
Thanks for taking the call, hugely appreciated.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
Not a problem. Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
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