Kim Robertson

Kim Robertson was a 16-year-old still attending Epsom Girls’ Grammar when she competed in the 1974 Christchurch Commonwealth Games, running in the 100m and 200m sprints and the 4x 100m relay.

The daughter of New Zealand rugby league team captain and later coach Maurie Robertson, Kim was an outstanding schoolgirl athlete. She dominated her age group nationally and in the 1973-74 season finished 3rd in both sprints at the national senior champs to secure selection for Christchurch.

Robertson was coached by Tom McIntyre (who two decades earlier had coached Dutch Holland to an Olympic 400m hurdles bronze medal). McIntyre was in his 90s by the time he began guiding Robertson, but she described him as an amazing coach, full of knowledge and encouragement.

The Commonwealth Games were an eye-opening experience for a schoolgirl. Robertson ran 12.1s in her 100m heat and 24.6s in her 200m heat, failing to advance in either event. In the 4x100m relay, the New Zealand women finished 5th, having qualified comfortably for the final.

Robertson competed in two more Commonwealth Games. At Edmonton in 1978, she reached the semi-finals of the 100m, where she ran 11.63s and finished 5th, just missing a spot in the final. In the 200m, she again reached the semis, this time finishing 6th in 23.59s. The women’s 4x100m relay team posted a 4th placing, a solid effort.

By Brisbane in 1982, Robertson was a seasoned athlete, and had moved up to the 400m. She ran 53.39s in her heat and 52.94s in her semi-final to advance to the final. There she finished 5th in 53.02s behind the winner, Raelene Boyle. The 4x400m relay team finished 6th.

Robertson was desperately unlucky not to become an Olympian. She was chosen for Moscow in 1980, but the American-led boycott put paid to her hopes. In 1984 she was within a fraction of a second of qualifying for the Los Angeles Olympics and, in hindsight, with the Eastern Block boycott factored in, would have been strongly favoured to make the final of the 400m.

She contested one world indoor championship, three World Cups and three Pan Pacific Games during her career.

Perhaps her best international performance was placing 3rd behind world record-holder Marita Koch of East Germany in the 200m at the world indoor champs in Paris in 1985. She was also 5th in the 60m sprint at that meet.

It is a measure of Robertson’s quality that her best time for the 400m, 51.60s, run in 1980, is still the fastest time ever run by a New Zealand woman, and by some distance at that. She won 20 national senior titles in individual events, plus several in relays.

After retiring from competitive athletics, Robertson moved to Nelson, where she coached several young sprinters and jumpers, including Brent Stebbings, who won three national secondary school triple jump titles. She also coached hockey, basketball and soccer, plus Special Olympic athletes over a 20-year period.

Kim had studied viticulture and wine-making at the Eastern Institute of Technology in Napier and put what she learned to good use. In 2008 she moved to California, where she was employed in the wine industry.