News & Updates

The 2020 senior women’s New Zealand Cross Challenge champion Eva Goodisson is looking to kick-start her track and field season with a strong performance on her home track at the New Zealand 3000m Championships, which is incorporated into the Potts Classic in Hastings on Saturday.

Eva’s main goals for the year are to book a place on the New Zealand triathlon team for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games. However, the 23-year-old all-round athlete who graduated from UC Davis (University of California, Davis) in December is now back full-time in New Zealand and is looking forward to competing over the seven-and-a-half lap distance at Mitre 10 Park.

“It’s great now to be back in New Zealand and what better opportunity than to race at Potts Classic in front of family and friends at the 3km champs in Hastings,” explains Eva, who was raised in nearby Havelock North and is a member of Hastings AC.

“I just want to go out there, enjoy the race and be up against some good competition. I know there are other triathletes competing, so it will be good to compare myself with the other girls.”

Eva spent a prolonged stint in New Zealand in 2020-21 due to the pandemic – highlighted by that victory at the New Zealand Cross Challenge in Dunedin. However, determined to complete her studies in the US she returned last March to finish the final year of her Bachelor of Sciences degree – majoring in managerial economics.

“I didn’t want to finish off my course over Zoom and although it wasn’t an easy decision, because at that time Covid was running hot over there and we were enjoying a good Covid-free bubble life in New Zealand, I knew I wanted to achieve more in the US.”

On her return to the States – the day after serving a spell of quarantine – Eva ran a handy 4:31.52 for 1500m in Stanford, just two seconds shy of her PB, and later in April she posted an outdoor 5000m PB of 16:59.93 in Sacramento.

However, just five days later she was diagnosed with a stress fracture of the left foot and was unfortunately sidelined for ten weeks.

“It was a real bummer,” she says. “I was actually pretty distraught because I had some pretty big track goals for 2021. But it did give me the chance to look to my long-term future too.”

Having specialised as a triathlete in her younger days and inspired by watching the Tokyo Olympics, she has re-engaged with triathlon. Readjusting her sights, she said: “I watched Tokyo and thought, if they can do it, I can do it too.”

Following the injury she did not quite fulfil her personal goals in her final cross country season for UC Davis, although she played a key role helping her college win the conference title, which was a huge thrill.

Since returning to New Zealand last month she has divided her training time between Havelock North and Mt Maunganui. Combining swimming and cycling training with an average of 60km of running each week, Eva is in decent shape and looking forward to targeting two key triathlon Commonwealth Games trial races in February and March.

Nonetheless, before then she has a date in Hastings and a tilt at the New Zealand 3000m championships, so what are her hopes for Saturday?

“At this point in the season I’d be happy with a 9:45 to sub-ten (minute) time,” she says. “My personal best is just under 9:30, but I’m not quite at that speed at the moment. To run a 9:45 would be a nice start. Laura Nagel has also been running phenomenally and it will be great to try and compete with her. Nicole van der Kaay is a Tokyo Olympic triathlete also starts, and it will be good to try and keep up with her.”

Later in the season the 1500m and 5000m at the Jennian Homes New Zealand Track & Field Championships – also in Hastings – will be on Eva’s radar, and although her future ambitions centre on triathlon she also fully acknowledges the importance of the running element.

“As we have seen from a lot of world races in triathlon, if you can keep up with the swim and the bike a lot of it comes down to who can run the fastest because of the draft legal format on the bike at World Triathlon events,” she says. “Running well this summer is a key part of my preparation.”

Follow a livestream of all the action at the 2022 Potts Classic from 2.30pm on Saturday here

Follow the Potts Classic results here