College Sport: Chasing the 10s mark, and an education

Macleans College's Austen Heuvel will defend his 100m national schools title next week in Wanganui. Picture / Jason Oxenham

Sprinter has eye on Gold Coast Games but prioritising athletic goals matter of degree

Austen Heuvel would love nothing more than to defend his 100m national schools title next week in Wanganui. But he would probably prefer to do it without pulling his hamstring, as he did in 2013, little more than halfway down the track.

He was leading the field by plenty - aside from the eventual winner, a Tongan athlete not eligible for the title - when he felt it go at about the 60m mark, but Heuvel had enough momentum to see him over the line.

"I just had to keep going!"

It was a bad tear, disrupting his 2013-14 season and forcing him to put any 200m aspirations on ice, not to mention the relay at that event.

But now the 18-year-old, Year 13 Macleans College runner is fully fit and ready to head to nationals at a venue - Cooks Gardens - dripping with history. It's not just the home ground of the Wanganui rugby team, it's also the stadium where Peter Snell broke the world mile record in 1962.

Heuvel's sights aren't set quite that high, though he was ranked in the world's top 25 Under-18 sprinters last year and is in the top 15 open male 100m competitors in New Zealand.

"There'll be a bit of pressure because of winning last year. I'm definitely quite nervous," says the Macleans prefect and Howick Junior Sportsman of the Year. He missed out on the boys' athletics award at last Thursday's ASB Young Sportsperson of the Year night to Auckland Grammar's top field eventer, Sam Ulufonua.

It is perhaps unusual for Heuvel to be nervous. "People are nervous up to two days out, but you've got to relax ... you shouldn't live track and field every second of the day."

Sound advice, and an example of Heuvel's maturity. He loves his sport but it's not everything. That's why he's making education a priority in Auckland next year. There was interest from US colleges keen to get him in their sprint programmes, but an experience racing there in May didn't really float his boat. So he's looking at a conjoint degree of environmental science in geography, and a BA.

"I'm going to focus on education, look to finish my degree and then [after that] refocus and do athletics fulltime again," he says.

That doesn't mean he'll walk away from the sport. But after this season, he won't spend his winters chasing the sun and 100m competition.

There is plenty of time to reach his peak as a sprinter, even though he's seen as someone who could potentially go to the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018 or the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In the meantime, he'll keep chipping away on his technique with coaches Joe Hunter and Rochelle Coster, looking to lower a personal best of 10.75 seconds, set in an early race of the 2013 schools nationals. To that end, you'll find him often competing against the senior men, especially in club meets.

As always, there are work-ons, especially his start, historically one of his strengths. "When I was younger, I could get away with pure strength, but now it's more technical, using iPads and speed cameras constantly."

Sprinters habitually train at distances far further than they run, so Heuvel gets through 600m reps at about 95 per cent intensity. One day he hopes to push up into the 10.2s, 10.1s and sub-10s marks. That would make him competitive with some of the top sprinters at the top events.

"I would only look at the Commonwealth Games if I was able to go under 10 seconds. I want to go and compete. If I was running 10.2, I wouldn't make the Olympics final."

As Heuvel was born in Namibia, to South African parents, it's no surprise he lists multiple Olympic and world championship 100m and 200m medallist Frankie Fredericks as an inspiration, not the Usain Bolt showman of today. As for next week, Heuvel has the 1996 mark of 10.6s - still the national schools 100m record - set by his mentor, Ben Potter of St Kentigern, to aim for. And, as ever, he will run his heart out.