Hugh has been coaching for over 50 years and in 2024 and 2025 he coached at the Commonwealth Championships in Fiji and India, respectively. Last August he was part of the coaching team at the Commonwealth Championships in Ahmedabad City, India. It was there where New Zealand’s 19-member squad delivered a strong performance to secure 11 medals across various categories.
When asked about the success at the two Championships, Hugh said:
New Zealand now has genuine world-class lifters who will be real medal chances at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.”
In Samoa, Hugh supported Uzbekistan World Record Holder and 2016 Olympic Gold medallist Ruslan Nurudinov who lifted a 400kg total to win the Universal Cup.
It was a privilege to work with Ruslan. He’s an outstanding athlete and showed the whole field what a world class performance looks like”.
Alongside his coaching commitments, Hugh holds a full-time role as Principal Advisor at the New Zealand Public Service Commission.
His public service role includes authoring definitive monitoring guidelines for New Zealand Crown entities and Strategic Financial Management Guidelines for boards of Crown bodies. He is member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors and specialises in supporting Crown governance boards. Last year he was awarded the Public Service Commissioner's Commendation for Excellence.
Hugh won’t be in Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games this summer but is already looking ahead to further international coaching duties in 2027 and to watching the Games from afar.
Find out more about Hugh's coaching on his blog.