Shields told the Otago Daily Times yesterday he has been contracted for 2 years on the university's distance running team. The annual scholarship equates to about $NZ38,500.
The distance squad is coached by Irish coach Conor Holt, who adopts a Lydiard approach to training. It is a similar programme to that which Shields has used with his Dunedin coach, Richard Barker.
``I met him [Holt] at the New Zealand athletics championships at Auckland,'' Shields said. ``He is looking after my best interests and will not change my training.''
Holt studies athletics form on the Internet and was impressed by the 5000m time of 14min 39sec Shields ran in Christchurch last December. He then emailed Athletics Otago, which passed the message on to Shields and the contract developed from there.
Shields (19) is a second-year biochemistry and physiology student at the University of Otago and will continue his course in the United States.
Purdue University has 39,000 students and is in the city of West Lafayette in Indiana in the Midwest. It is one of the top 10 academic universities in the United States.
West Lafayette is a hilly city with many undulating places to run. It is close to a national park.
Shields will be part of a 12-strong cross-country team that includes another international athlete from Ireland. The rest of the team is from the United States.
He will also be in the track and field team for indoor and outdoor meetings.
``The university competes in the Big 10 Conference,'' Shields said. ``It is the same conference that Nick Willis competed in with Michigan.
``I'm looking forward to the challenge. It is a competitive environment and I will be training with other guys with a similar ability to myself.''
Shields started running seriously when he was a pupil at Kings High School. Max Smith, who is on a scholarship at Providence, Rhode Island, is also a Kings High School old boy.
His Dunedin-based coach, Richard Barker, was delighted for Shields.
``The scholarship is a reward for all the hard work,'' Barker said. ``It puts him into a level of competition that we can't offer him in New Zealand. It is a good opportunity for Caden to develop as a runner.''
Shields first entered the limelight when he outclassed senior athletes to win the Otago 10,000m championship title last December.
Shields, who has trained consistently with Barker over the past seven years, did not make an impact at the start, but during the past two years he has become one of Otago's best middle and long-distance runners.
Barker put Shields on a Lydiard-based programme. In his build-up last year, Shields logged between 140km and 150km a week.
The highlight of the recent track season for Shields was retaining his New Zealand junior men's 10,000m title at Inglewood last January.
The emergence of Shields over the last two years did not surprise Barker.
``We have increased the volume by 10%-15% a year,'' Barker said. ``But it has been easy running and not too intense.''
Last winter, Shields became the first athlete to win the Port Chalmers to Dunedin Road Race from scratch since Tom Marshall (North Otago) in 1960. He was just the sixth athlete in the 105-year history of the event to achieve the feat.
Shields also broke the 17-year-old lap record on the final leg of the National Road Relay at Timaru last September that was held by 2002 Commonwealth Games marathon representative Craig Kirkwood. He ran 28min 12sec to beat Kirkwood's time by 39sec on the 9.3km final leg.
