Rugby: Young star they are calling 'Bolt'

Josh "Bolt" Adegoke in action during a game of touch at Napier's Whitmore Park on Tuesday. Photo/Glenn Taylor

Josh Adegoke's Taradale rugby teammates call him "Bolt". It is a reference to his speed on the paddock being compared with that of Jamaican sprint champion Usain Bolt, who is widely regarded as the fastest man ever.

A Napier Athletics Club 10-year-old, Adegoke will get an early indication of his potential to follow a career path similar to Bolt's when he represents the North Island against New South Wales in the January 18-19 Trans Tasman Challenge at Auckland's Mount Smart Stadium.

The only athlete from his club to be selected in the North Island team of 120, Adegoke joins the Hastings Athletics Club trio of 10-year-old Libby Charlton and 11-year-olds Wesley Akeripa and Mitchell Snell as Hawke's Bay representatives. They were selected from 3000 triallists, while the New South Wales team is selected from 23,000.

A second season athlete, Adegoke will compete in the 200m and 400m track events, as well as the long jump.

He has respective personal bests of 30.5s and 1m11s for the track events, and 4.30m in the long jump.

A United Kingdom-born South African, Adegoke competed at the Colgate Games in Inglewood back in January and gained four first placings and a second.

The Napier East D grade rugby representative, who also enjoys playing touch, will travel to the Whangarei Colgates next month.

Adegoke has been a regular winner of his St Patrick's School cross-country races and this year won his school's Year 5 athletics championship. Next year he will attend Arthur Miller School.

A huge fan of the All Blacks and Magpies, Adegoke won the Greendale Shield for most points scored by a player in his rugby team this season. In athletics, he won the trophy for most points in a season and an award for most promising under-14 sprinter, which he shared with clubmate Coby Price.

The Trans Tasman Challenge, for 10 and 11-year-old athletes, alternates between Auckland and Sydney on an annual basis, and until recently was open only to competitors in the upper half of the North Island.