Hamish Kerr didn’t think he could become the best high jumper in the world because he “didn’t see a pathway” in New Zealand.
Now, the 29-year-old has added to his impressive tally of accolades, claiming high jump gold at the World Athletics Championships after clearing 2.36m to edge out Korea’s Woo Sanghyeok.
Speaking on Herald NOW, Kerr said the way he was able to conduct himself during the competition made the win “very, very satisfying”.
“I knew that I am the best high jumper in the world, I’ve proved that time and time again, but to be fair, you know, this was the year to beat me,” Kerr said.
“I had a very long off-season. I didn’t do a huge amount of training until sort of early in the year, and even then, a lot of my jump sessions were not to the standard that I would need to get a really good performance, so I knew that there were chinks in the armour coming into this week.
“I tried to focus on the stuff that we had done really well this season and I think that this is just proof that I’ve got so many different kinds of arrows in my quiver that I can pull out at will now.”
Kerr’s win added a second title at the Tokyo National Stadium in as many days for New Zealand after Geordie Beamish won the 300m steeplechase a year after they both won indoor world titles at the same meet.
The champion high jumper said he had stayed up later than planned the night before his gold medal performance to cheer Beamish on as he produced a come-from-behind stunner to win the steeplechase.
“I watched that the night before, like just before I was supposed to go to sleep. And it prolonged my bedtime wind-down time a wee bit.
“There was a moment where I was like, ‘oh no, like I’m gonna have to do this now as well’. I think it’s amazing for our sport that we can have the talent we’ve got.
“For us as athletes to sit there and watch these guys do so well, you just can’t help but feel like you’ve gotta respond to that – and it really adds to it."
Kerr and Beamish join Dame Valerie Adams (won shot put four times), Beatrice Faumuina (discus) and Tom Walsh (shot put) as New Zealanders to win world titles.
Reflecting on his career, Kerr said he didn’t think he could become the best high jumper in the world because he “didn’t see a pathway” in New Zealand.
“There was no one that I could look up to in my sport and see that he’d done it.
“Now I’ve got here, I’ve realised that my strength was that I took my own pathway, so what I would encourage anyone to do ... just get the right team of people around you, love what you do, turn up every day and the world’s your oyster.”
Kerr has now won titles at the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, World Indoor Championships, Diamond League final and the World Athletics Championships.
“It’s an individual sport, but it’s not. I have such a massive team of people behind me ... I think that we’ve got some amazing talent in our country and we’ve got some people who can sit around a table and work out how to make me the best high jumper in the world.
“I think that’s a pretty cool thing to do from somewhere where we’ve never had anyone do that before, so it’s a real credit to them.”