James Guthrie-Croft says sport helped him beat his disability

School boy athlete Jaames Guthrie-Croft with his dad Thomas Croft. Photo / Doug Sherring

James Guthrie-Croft has defied the odds to become one of New Zealand's rising sprint sensations.

He was diagnosed with the motor learning disability dyspraxia aged five after his teacher recognised he had significant co-ordination issues and had a "gait".

His mum Pauline Guthrie noticed her son had poor reflexes and was prone to tripping and falling, but she dismissed it as "clumsiness".

"It all began to make sense," Pauline said. "James couldn't hold a knife and fork, he couldn't hold a pencil. The dyspraxia affected his fine-motort skills and hampered his reading and learning."

To combat the condition, James, now 15, threw himself into sport and was given additional tutoring to keep up to speed in the classroom.

Earlier this month he astonished athletics officials when he blitzed the field at the New Zealand Secondary School Championships in Timaru - winning the junior boys 100m, 200m and long jump titles.

Now he has his sights set on booking a spot in the New Zealand team at the 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games.

"We are so proud of what James has achieved on and off the track," said his dad Thomas Croft, pictured left with James.

"He has worked so hard to overcome his problems and 10 years ago we could never have imagined he would come so far with his sport.

"Constant practise and repetition has helped him a lot. When James is interested in something he will give it his all.

"We have had to get the screed redone on the back garden wall because of all the soccer balls, rugby balls and basketballs he throws around for hours every day. He has also broken a couple of the neighbours' windows with cricket balls."

James, from One Tree Hill, won his first major sprint races two years ago, running barefoot in an Auckland schools competition.

He is also a small forward for his school's premier basketball team and has been called up to the First 15 rugby development squad at St Peter's College.

"I still have trouble learning some of the training drills but other than that I seem to be doing fine with schoolwork and at sport," James said.

"The biggest problem I have is now deciding between rugby, basketball and athletics."