Alex Jordan prepares for the World Youth Championships

Alex Jordan has just started training on Nelson's new all-weather track.

Nelson based sprinter Alex Jordan is off to the World Youth Championships to be held in Sϋdtirol, Italy, where he will be competing in the 200m and 400m. This has been one of his goals for some time and he says that he’s looking forward to the experience and just getting out there and racing.

Last year he went to the Oceania Champs and earlier this year the Australian Olympic Youth Festival. He found the experience pretty good: “it’s a lot more serious, there’s more intensity than the meets in New Zealand and you need to be more focused.” He says that meeting people from different countries  makes it a really great experience.

The 17 year old has been competing since he was 14 years old. School was where he first started racing track. After he broke a few records he found himself really motivated.

The seventh former at Nelson’s Nayland College is currently getting in some 400m training in preparation for the Worlds. This includes longer reps on Monday, shorter faster reps on Tuesday, weights twice a week, strides and longer runs - and he has just started practicing some starts.

Alex Jordan winning the 200m at this years National Track and Field Championships. Photos by Gary Nesbit www.nesport.co.nz

He found that competing on Nelson’s grass track helped because it was a lot harder to push off, and when he went to an all-weather track for competing he found things a lot lighter. He has just started training on the new all-weather track and finds it nice and bouncy which he likes.

Recently training has been a little bit harder due to the wintry weather. The coldness of the weather has made it harder to get motivated for training, especially in the early morning.  For additional inspiration he looks to Jeremy Wariner (one of the fastest 400m runners in recent times), and Tyson Gay (a top ranked American sprint athlete whose events include the 100m and 200m).

Of all the meets over the past summer he thinks that his stand-out performance came when he won the 100m – 200m double at the NZ Secondary Schools Champs in Hamilton. When asked why, he says that at that meet he was focused the whole time. However at the moment he’s concentrating on the 200m and 400m. He is dropping the 100m at the moment because he doesn’t think he’s explosive enough for the 100m. But he’ll back to defend his 100m and 200m titles at the NZ Secondary Schools Champs later in the year. He says that the 400m and 200m are better suited for his style of running: “I‘m not a fast starter but I can finish stronger.”

Asked about his recent success, he gives all the credit to his coach Barry Hunt (also from Nelson). He’s been getting me focused and writing really good training programmes for me, he’s been with me every day every week, he’s my mentor and coach.

Some of Alex Jordan’s recent performances include:
NZ Secondary Schools Track and Field Championships
100m Senior Boys	1st	11.10sec
200m Senior Boys	1st	22.19sec
Athletics New Zealand Track and Field Championships
400m 16 and under	2nd	48.19sec
200m 16 and under	1st	21.87sec