"Nick said he would do it and he's done it ... he's top of the world."
These were the words of Bob Palmer, the proud dad of Hawke's Bay shot putter Nick Palmer, as he relayed the news of his son's world-leading feat last night. A week after winning theNew Zealand Secondary Schools title in Hastings, Palmer, 17, threw 21.27m when he won the under-18 title at the South Island championships in Timaru on Saturday.
"It's been a huge year for Nick and this throw ticked his final box," Palmer snr said.
The Karamu High School pupil's Timaru throw beat the year's previous under-18 world-best effort for a 5kg weight of 20.99m, recorded by an Indian rival.
"It's not an overall world record but it's definitely a world record in terms of this year's rankings," Palmer explained.
"It's also a confidence booster as I look ahead to qualifying with the 6kg weight for Finland," Palmer said referring to the July 10-15 World Junior Championships in Finland.
"I'm getting close to qualifying. I'm pretty confident, I feel good about going ... it's going to happen," Palmer said.
To qualify for Finland he will have to throw close to the 18.60m mark and he has done numerous 18m efforts during training.
"Dale was pretty happy with Timaru. But he is always about looking forward. He knows there is more work to be done and I just have to keep training," Palmer replied when quizzed on the thoughts of his Christchurch-based coach and Athletics New Zealand's lead throws coach Dale Stevenson.
Palmer has a high-performance training camp in Christchurch this week which will end with a comp on Saturday. His first competition with a 6kg weight will be the Hamilton-hosted nationals from March 9-11.
