Above: Wairarapa track and field star, Liam Lamb, stands outside WBS’s Masterton office with their Head of Operations, Anna Keane.

The former Wairarapa College student emerged as a running talent back in 2018, training under renowned Wairarapa athletics coach Mark Harris. Harris, a finalist in the ‘WBS Coach of the Year’ category at the 2023 Wairarapa Sports Awards, initially took Liam under his tutelage as a 3,000m or 6km cross country distance runner. It was at 3,000m Liam gained his first national ranking. Now, 1500m is Liam’s specialist event, and the race he will be pursuing as he gets set to compete against the world’s best in Europe.

Harris describes Liam as ‘a fastidious athlete, leaving no stone unturned’ in his training and pursuit of success. His hard work and preparation saw him run a 3:43 min 1500m race at age 19, ‘not a bad time’ they felt, but which on further research turned out to be the 4th fastest junior time over that distance in New Zealand history. To put that in perspective, double Olympian Nick Willis ran the same distance race at the same age in 3:42 min. This outstanding achievement also caught the interest of Stanford University in the USA, who offered Liam a full 3-year track and field scholarship. Liam decided at the time to turn the offer down to continue working with Harris and his local support base.

Like so many young athletes, Liam has been balancing his training with part-time work and study commitments. He has put his current study in business and marketing at Massey University on hold to focus on training prior to leaving for Europe. His current schedule sees him training twice a day, six days a week to prepare for racing with the world’s best. In Europe, Liam will be based between Birmingham and Belgium, competing in eight race meets through the UK, Belgium and France. Harris will continue to coach remotely, the pair using social media and an online training platform, including monitoring and recording of data from Liam’s watch. The aim for the pair is ultimately qualification for the Paris Olympics 2024, either through achieving an official race Olympic qualification time, or through a world ranking points-based system. This would take Liam’s five fastest race times to determine qualification.

Regardless, it is exciting that all sports science testing results indicate at this stage Liam has the potential to be a world class athlete. From us all at WBS, kia kaha – we wish Liam all the very best in his endeavours in Europe and look forward to seeing how brightly this young star will shine.