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Avery seeks New Zealand Cross crown after dream year
Cam Avery looks to upgrade on the silver medal he won in the senior men's race at the 2022 New Zealand Cross Country Championships. Credit: (Michael Dawson).
Consistency has been the key for the outstanding year Cameron Avery has enjoyed – and one which he hopes will propel him to the top of the podium at the 2023 New Zealand Cross Country and Relay Championships at Spa Thermal Park on Saturday.
The 26-year-old Christchurch Avon athlete impressed in February to finish top New Zealand athlete (placing 47th) in the senior men’s race at the World Cross Country in Bathurst and earlier this month hacked more than two-and-a-half minutes from his half marathon PB in Gold Coast to run 1:02:50.
Yet under the guidance of his coach, Chris Pilone, he believes there are no great secrets to his excellent form in 2023 – which has been built on very solid foundations.
“It has been consistently training day in day out with my training partners,” says Avery, who works 36 hours a week as a respiratory physiologist. “I’ve put in some really solid months. My training hasn’t changed too much. It has been very simple. Pilone knows what he is doing, and I trust him. He trusts me to make any adjustments I need to make. We have a good relationship.
“I’m now showing up to races expecting to do well and expecting to be competitive. This has given me a new confidence, and it makes me feel excited for race days because at the end of the day I love to race.”
Avery, who graduated from Stony Brook University in the US in 2021, has emerged over the past year or so as one of New Zealand’s most prominent domestic endurance runners. Last year he won silver behind his training partner Matthew Taylor (who will be absent through illness this year) at the 2022 edition of the New Zealand Cross Country Championships, before later in the year claiming his maiden senior national title when taking gold at the New Zealand Mountain Running Championships.
“2022 was my first national cross since winning the junior race in Auckland back in 2016,” explains Avery. “I would have liked to have won last year but Matt was so strong. I was stoked with second, but I would like something a little more golden this time.”
Elated with his performance in both Bathurst and on the Gold Coast – where the Christchurch-based athlete was gunning for a sub-63-minute clocking – he is now looking forward to taking on the challenge at Spa Thermal Park.
Cranking out a weekly mileage of around 145-160km a week he believes he is as strong as ever and his training has well prepared him for Saturday.
“For many months I’ve been focused on Gold Coast, but I think our training environment is very conducive to cross country training,” he explains. “Our Thursday morning runs include a climb up the Port Hills and we’d usually carry out some hill running as part of our Sunday training. We’ve done nothing crazy, we just trust that fitness will pay off at Spa Thermal Park.”
The confidence in his training extends to his belief in his training partners to also run well in the senior men’s race on Saturday. He fully expects David Lee, Russell Green and Tom Moulai to be prominent, as well as Will Little, their Auckland-based training partner.
So what are his hopes for the 10km challenge which can be followed on the livestream via the Athletics NZ YouTube page?
“The challenge of Spa Thermal Park is you are either running up or down. But I see this as an opportunity because I like running downhill as much as uphill – and anyone who trains with me knows I like running uphill a lot.
“I’d like to take one step further up the podium than last year and hopefully that podium is filled with my training partners too.”
***Follow the livestream action at the New Zealand Cross Country and Relay Championships on the Athletics New Zealand YouTube page.
***Full Individual entries here
***Relay entries here
***Individual results link here
***Relay results link here
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