Fifteen-year old has the potential to follow New Zealand's shot put legend
He is only 15, but already Jacko Gill is being talked up as New Zealand athletics' next great hope. And, like Olympic star Valerie Vili, Gill is ready to make his mark in shot put.
The hottest prospect since Vili stormed on to the world stage, Gill, at 1.87m and 84kg, is no giant, but is already packing plenty of power and strength into his frame.
He burst into the sporting headlines with a world's best mark for a 14-year-old (with a 5kg shot) by throwing 20.42m at December's New Zealand Secondary Schools championships, shattering the mark of 18.54m set by Ukraine's Nikita Nesterenko in 2006.
Gill made even greater advances at last month's New Zealand Championships in Christchurch when he sent the 6kg shot out to 19.92m to win the M19 title and claim a world's best for 15 and 16-year-olds.
In training last Sunday, he broke the 22m barrier for the first time. Not bad for a boy who spent his early sporting years as a karate kid. "I found that a bit boring," said Gill. "And, shot putting came quite naturally."
No surprise in that. His father Walter won New Zealand senior shot titles in 1987 and 1989 - after claiming the discus crown in 1975. His mother Nerida won the 1990 discus title.
The surprise is more in the way he beats much older competitors, to the extent he is off to July's World Junior [under-20] Track and Field Championships in Canada while still eligible for next year's World Youth [under-18] championships in France. If he was 10 days younger, he would not be allowed to compete in Canada.
At the last World Youth Championships in Italy, in 2009, the winning throw (with a 5kg shot) was 21.60m. Gill has done better than that with a 6kg shot and is well clear of his rivals.
Juggling training - four hours every day overseen by his coach for the past year, Didier Poppe, who has just taken Vili under his wing - with his schoolwork as a year 11 pupil at Takapuna Grammar takes its toll, but he is determined to finish his NCEA and his last two years at school.
While he faces a massive challenge at the World Juniors - where he will be, by far, the youngest in the field - Gill has his sights set on a medal. "I reckon I can pull it off," he said. "If I can throw 20m, that would assure me of a medal. That would be cool."
He accepts he will walk into the circle at next year's Youth Championships as a favourite. His sights set on the world record 22.79m - a distance he has almost reached in training.
A far cry from when, aged 12, " I just stood there and let it go."
