Hamish Carson
Carson was educated at Kapiti College. During his childhood, Carson participated in a wide range of sporting activities, including athletics, field hockey and skiing. Carson took up cross country skiing in Wanaka in the winter of 2001. After two seasons of downhill skiing at Ruapehu, he won the national championships in both the classic and freestyle forms for the M12 age grade. He initially took up harriers to maintain his fitness for cross country skiing. Carson joined a harriers training group coached by Graham Tattersall at the end of 2002, and had his last season of field hockey in 2003. In 2008, he joined Wellington Scottish Athletics Club and was selected for their men's A team to compete in the 2009 National Road Relay Championships being held on the Takahe to Akaroa course. In the National Road Relay Championships held in Feilding in 2019, Carson achieved a win for the Wellington Scottish men's team by taking the lead on the last lap, and beating the previous record time for that lap. Carson has been coached by Arch Jelley who is known for coaching New Zealand athlete John Walker to international success including a gold medal in the 1500 m event at the Olympic Games in Montreal in 1976. Although Jelly retired from coaching in 2000, five years later, he agreed to coach Carson, who subsequently represented New Zealand at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the 1500 metres. Jelley retired from coaching once more in 2018. In October 2021, Carson joined the Belgian club Atletiekclub Lyra. Carson's current coach is Tomasz Lewandowski. In May 2016, Carson met the IAAF B standard for the 1500 m, making him eligible for selection to the New Zealand team for the 2016 Summer Olympics. In July 2016, Carson was confirmed as a member of the New Zealand team. At the Rio Olympics, Carson's initial goal was to get to the 1500 m track semi final. To achieve that, he needed to be in the top six in his heat or one of the six next fastest over the three heats. Carson finished 8th, therefore was ineligible to proceed to the semi final. In the years from 2010 to 2021, Carson was placed in the top three on multiple occasions in New Zealand championships for the distances 1500 m and 3000 m, with some additional top placings in the longer 10000 m and half-marathon events.
Career
He represented his country at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the 1500 metres.