Kerry Hill ran without particular success in the 1974 Christchurch Commonwealth Games, but built on that experience and his innate understanding of athletics to become one of New Zealand’s pre-eminent track and field coaches.

Hill, born in Takaka in 1947, attended North Shore Teachers College and then taught at Birkdale Intermediate School on Auckland’s North Shore from 1974-78. Following that, he had a spell living in England, where he managed Elgin House in London from 1979-81, providing accommodation in London for diplomats and foreign guests.

On his return, he became Sports Director and Head of Physical Education at Westlake Boys High School from 1982-86. Since then his fulltime employment revolved around coaching athletics.

Hill’s individual events in Christchurch were the 100m and the long jump. In the sprint, he finished at the tail-end of his heat in a time of 10.9s. He was 10th in a field of 12 in the long jump with a best leap of 7.18m. He also competed in the 4 x 100m relay, along with Grant Anderson, Trevor Cochrane and Bevan Smith. The New Zealanders qualified 7th with a time of 40.5s and in the final improved marginally with 40.4s, which placed them 7th.

He faced some top New Zealand opposition in his specialty events. In the 100m, Laurie D’Arcy and Bevan Smith, both Olympians, tended to rule. In the long jump, Bob Thomas and Dave Norris were outstanding, but Hill’s time came and he won three national titles in the long jump from 1973-75.

Hill has had a long career involving coaching and some administration, including:

· Director of Coaching Development, Athletics New Zealand 1986-94.

· Director of Coaching, Singapore Amateur Athletics Association, 1994-97.

· Manager of Sport Development, Sport North Harbour, 1997-99.

· Executive Director, Powerspeed Systems 1997-2004.

· Consulting Head Coach sprints, hurdles, strength and conditioning, Millennium Institute of Sport and Health, 2000-05.

· Manager, Boys Multisport Skill Development Centres, Aspire Academy for Sports Excellence in Qatar, 2005-12.

· Coach Development Manager, Athletics New Zealand, 2015-16.

· Coach of men’s 4 x 100m relay qualification attempt for 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, 2013-14.

· National co-ordinator replays and sprints, 2014-17.

· Relays technical lead, Athletics New Zealand, 2014-17.

· Managing Director, New Zealand Speed Development Academy, from 2012.

· Head Coach of Speed School High Performance Centre, Club Aspire in Tauranga, from 2015.

· Head of Speed and Agility, Waikato University Adams Centre for High Performance, from 2017.

· CoachForce athletics officer for Sport Bay of Plenty.

· Speed and agility trainer for New Zealand men's sevens rugby, from 2017

Besides athletics and the rugby sevens, Hill has worked with bobsleigh competitors, the New Zealand Warriors, Northern Force Netball, Auckland Blues rugby, New Zealand Gymnastics, Auckland Cricket and many other organisations.

He’s been the athletics head coach on New Zealand Olympic, world championship and Commonwealth Games teams.

He also found time to edited the NZ Athletics coach and NZ Athlete magazines, and was the first editor of Athletics New Zealand’s Run Jump Throw fundamental programme.

These days he is based in Tauranga.

Kerry Hill

Biography

Fast facts