Julian Matthews

Julian attended his first Olympic Games in Rio 2016.

The 1500m specialist had his first international championships experience at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where he placed ninth in the final.

At the 2015 Beijing World Championships he made the semi-finals of the 1500m and placed 16th overall, well above his ranking for the year.

With a personal best of 3:36.14, set in the USA in May 2016, Julian sits seventh on the New Zealand all-time list for 1500m. He also has a personal best mile time of 3:56.91 set indoors early in 2016.

Julian was the New Zealand 1500m champion in 2012 and runner-up in 2014 and 2015.

First coached by Greg Lautenslager in Nelson, Julian attended Providence University studying economics from 2009, training under the guidance of Ray Treacy.  He has been coached by Ron Warhurst since 2015.

Julian is from Nelson and competes for Athletics Nelson.

Career highlights:

16th World Championship 2015
9th Commonwealth Games 2014
Ranked 32nd in world 2016
Ranked 84th in world 2015
Ranked 88th in world 2014
NZ 1500m champion 2012, 2 x silver medallist 1500m, 1 x bronze (3000m) 

Personal Best  3:36.14 May 2016