ZOE HOBBS

• Published date: 19 April 2024
• Publication title: Sports Tab

There is something to be said for how many of our Olympic athletes — who, in fairness, spend the majority of their time overseas and seldom get to compete on home soil — slip through the cracks in non-pinnacle event years

But there is something special about Hobbs, and it is time for people to wake up and take note of the sprint sensation.

The 26-year-old sprinter has been a revelation in the past couple of years on the track, and is about to break the mould again as the first Kiwi female sprinter to compete at the Olympics in 48 years.

One day after the qualification period opened for Paris, Hobbs ticked that box and booked her ticket after running a sizzling time at ResiSprint, in Switzerland, on July 1 to go under the required time by 0.11sec and again lower her national record.

That time was 10.96sec — just 0.47sec off the world record set by Florence Griffith-Joyner. Let...