Athletics: Paralympics ultimate goal for Hayman

Rebecca Hayman's hopes of making the Black Ferns women's rugby team were shattered when she was paralysed from the waist down in a car crash in Dunedin in 2006.

She is now reconciled to life in a wheelchair and started her new sport of athletics last year.

Hayman's coach, Raelene Bates, believes the younger sister of former All Black prop Carl Hayman has the potential to represent New Zealand in the throwing events at the Paralympics in London in 2012.

Parafed events are being added to the Commonwealth Games programme in New Delhi next year and Hayman could also make that team.

Hayman dabbled in athletics when she was a pupil at Otago Girls High School but this is the first time she has taken the sport seriously.

"It's good fun," she said. "I'm learning. But it's not too hard. I just have to keep the frame in the correct position to get the best out of my throwing technique."

Hayman has made impressive progress early in her athletics career to suggest to Bates that she could become a paralympic athlete.

"It is part of my long-term goals to get to that level," she said.

"But there is still a lot of hard work to go. I will just have to keep chipping away."

She is already putting in training either five or six days a week, building up her strength and perfecting the throwing techniques.

"Rebecca has a huge potential but she is new to the sport at the moment," Bates said.

"She still has a lot of power in her body and just needs the confidence to know that she can succeed."

Hayman started work as a liaison officer for accident victims at the spinal unit of Burwood Hospital, in Christchurch, this week.

She competed as a wheelchair athlete at the interclub track and field meeting at Memorial Park, Mosgiel, on Saturday.

Her immediate goal is to qualify for the Oceania Parafed championships to be held in conjunction with the Arafura Games at Darwin in May.

Hayman was a Dunedin dive instructor and promising rugby player when she was injured in the crash in April 2006.

She played rugby for seven years and played at representative level for Otago Spirit and for the South Island schoolgirls team.

She demonstrated her athletics ability in Mosgiel on Saturday when she managed 4.81m in the shot put, and threw 10.64m in the discus and 9.64m in the javelin in only her second competitive outing.

Her first success was at the South Island Parafed Games at Christchurch in November when she won the shot put with 5.02m, a distance that was just 10cm short of the New Zealand record.

She was also runner-up in the javelin.

Hayman's next big competition will be at the twilight meeting in Christchurch on March 13.

Olympic bronze medallist Nick Willis will attempt to break 3min 50sec for the mile at that meeting.