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hey Runners only with dime Harley
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Runners only with dom Harvey and Hamish
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Kirk g'day mate thanks for having me
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mate hey thanks so much for coming here
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Hamish Commonwealth Games called
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medalist the New Zealander that's jumped
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higher than any other New Zealander ever
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you and I just before we sat down to
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record this we went uh to the coffee
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shop just over the road from me and as
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we were walking over the road like we
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walked past a just a normal sized van
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and I was thinking to myself like with a
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mattress on the roof of their van you
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could you could legit jump up on it oh
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easily mate I could jump over it if I if
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I had to if you told me I would have
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done it come on the thing is like the
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style of jumping you do like it's like
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it's not cool you can't jump over a van
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you're going to land on your back you
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know if I had a dollar for every time
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someone asked me to jump over something
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give me 40 minutes to warm up I'll get
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the shoes on but you you do jump like
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ridiculously high like two 2.3 meters
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yeah yeah so my best is 231 which I the
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best way that I like to comprehend it is
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a door frame is 198 and then you put one
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of those rulers that you had at school
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the sort of 30 centimeters on top of the
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door frame and I can jump over there
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it's not it's nuts so what is it what is
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a jump that you can just now every time
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like with your eyes shut two meters like
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what's the what's the level where it
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starts to get tricky and you is in
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competition my starting height would be
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probably about 217 so that's again still
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quite high and then that's that's
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something that
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um I probably had to get my head around
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this year a lot because I did a lot of
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international comps for the first time
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in a while and yeah they just start so
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bloody high so 20 1.9 I'm 198 right
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right so I'm not sure but it's still
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very high still a lot higher than what
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than what you are and the next best in
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New Zealand what can they do
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um there's a couple of young fellows who
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are coming through who can do sort of
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like maybe 208 to 210 yeah
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no great guys I trained with them so
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it's nice to see them do yeah yeah but
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um but you you were you're just that
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much better than anyone else in New
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Zealand like you turn up to any
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competition you like with your with what
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you do on your first jump you're gonna
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you're gonna blow everyone else out of
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the water aren't you usually yeah I
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generally I win the competition with my
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first jump most times in New Zealand and
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that's something that I've had to
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contend with a lot over the last few
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years just as you know I'm a victim of
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my own success I've gone better and
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better and
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the the thrill of winning or like
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beating people has diminished so much
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that you kind of have to find other
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other things to get you going and
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um I think covert was actually really
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good for that as well because I kind of
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had my head in 2019 I was sort of just
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starting to get quite good I jumped 230
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um I'll show any chance to qualify for
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World champs for the first time and
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um I was just in this opinion that I'd
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never jump higher New Zealand I was just
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like ah you know it'll never happen like
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it's too cold there's no one ever
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pushing me or anything because I
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genuinely do well in this competition
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um and then covert happened the board
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was shut and we had to find other ways
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to to get us going and and that was
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really good for me because it made me
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kind of go back to what I enjoy about
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jumping and and and kind of what I why I
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do the sport what keeps me in it and and
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I realize they're actually like
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I just I just love jumping high and it
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doesn't really matter where
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um and yeah so I was able to sort of tap
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into that and I can jump quite high in
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New Zealand now yeah and and I I mean
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winning feels good even if it's not good
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in terms of like driving you to be the
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absolute best you can be winning is
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still [ __ ] nice I'm sure it's always
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nice
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all right
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um we there's so much we need to talk
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about we will go way back is the
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Commonwealth Games gold medal that we
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need to talk about the 10th at the
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Olympic Games
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um first of all um what's your
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relationship with running you were I
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believe you were quite a good runner
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before you discovered high jump yes so I
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do qualify for runners only podcast
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um I do run from time to time no I
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um I got into Athletics as like a 1500
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800 meter Runner
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um and for me I yeah I loved running
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um I think it was because
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my dad and my sister came out with me a
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lot so you know we would go as sort of
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like a little family unit and just go
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for jogs up Mount Eden and sort of
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around Cornwall Park and places like
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that and so for me it was just like a
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real social thing I love doing it and
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yeah I think like as I got older I also
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did cross country in the winter so I
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sort of played rugby and did cross
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country and sort of all the way through
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high school and I sucked like I was so
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bad at it um but for me you were doing
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good at like jumping over the fences
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though if there was a course or the
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fence I was like I am making up half a
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second here like it doesn't matter if
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I'm 100 like I will make up the house
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again
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um so no so it was and and that's funny
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that's funny you say that because it was
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like I would go to Athletics and I would
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get smoked in the 1500s I'd get smoked
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in the 800 but I was tired so I felt
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like I'd done some work and then at the
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end of the day right at the end of the
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day I'd go to the high jump and I'd come
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like second
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and it was kind of like you know I was
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so much better at high jump than I was
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running from even from a young age but
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for me that was just never really like a
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pathway because you know this
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historically we haven't had high jumpers
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we don't have anyone to sort of look up
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to and kind of make you realize you're
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the first
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um male in New Zealander to win like a
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commonwealth game score middle I think
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the first male high jumper to win a
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commonwealth games in the middle who's
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the female was that like your vet
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Williams way back no it was Tanya Murray
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in the 1990 com games right and I
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believe she won it as well so so yeah so
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we've got a we've got a little bit of
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pedigree on the women's side but on the
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mean side and it's quite different it's
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quite a different event like just the
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way that you jump the kind of the things
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that you you know the the physical
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traits you need to have are quite
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different and so yeah so for me it was
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just like I just loved running and high
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jump was just this thing that I was
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pretty good at which I could do on the
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side of that but yeah as I got older and
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lazier I sort of went slower you know I
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went shorter and shorter in events I
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went to like 400s and 300 hurdles and
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all that kind of stuff and then yeah
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eventually I kind of realized that high
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jump was my thing and just stuck with it
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yeah and you you still run now like you
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went for a run this morning before
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coming here I did I got smoked by my
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sister so she um she said come out for a
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run and I was like yeah okay now I can
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do that like you know she works
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full-time like surely she she couldn't
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couldn't you know exactly but no she
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took me out and um we we did 15ks which
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I was very proud of actually like that's
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a good distance I I yeah I I running's a
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funny one a like I still have a lot of
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respect for the runners
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um all the guys on tour who are distance
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Runners I just love getting getting you
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know chatting to them and just seeing
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what they do because for me it's just
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like it's just so impressive even just
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from like a weekend warrior point of
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view like the things that people do you
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know to follow something they love and
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and the sort of the distances and the
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paces that people can do without being
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like a you know a top athlete is just
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like mind-boggling to me yeah so so
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you're from uh Auckland you live in
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Christchurch now
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um you had to relocate down there
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because that's where your coach lives
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um how do you find it how do you find
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Christchurch you train like in a corner
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of um like Christchurch boys high right
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yeah so so
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like I love Auckland
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um Auckland will kind of always be my
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home if your family's here it will be
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right exactly exactly and that's that's
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the thing it's the people up here but no
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I like Christchurch is lovely as well
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it's it's so convenient for training I
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mean like you said we we train at
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Christchurch boys high which is a little
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strip of track it's like 60 meters and
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it's got one Bend and a little long jump
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pit and a javelin Runway and that's it
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it's just on the side of the school and
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there's a main road right next to it but
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it's real Grassroots and like I think
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that's something that I love about it
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because our sport is real Grassroots you
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know there's there's a very small amount
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of professional athletes and then pretty
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much it's propped up by just people who
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love the sport so yeah I think there's
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something super super cool about being
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able to do a training there on like a
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Saturday morning and then jumping on a
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plane flying to you know anywhere in the
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world and then suddenly you're competing
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against you know these these amazing
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athletes with 40 000 people watching and
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it's like just the juxtaposition between
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those two things it's so super grounding
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and yeah it's something that I just love
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it's awesome so what does an average day
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look like like I've got no idea what
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would be involved in high jump training
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uh but I'm guessing it's not all jumps
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no no so so we we jump probably about
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three times a week um when we're in
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quite heavy training
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um and that's yeah so we do sort of
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three times a week jumping we do
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two or three times a week in the in the
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weight room doing lifting and when you
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say three times a week jumping like how
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many jumps
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um we do one like high intensity
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sessions so it'll be quite like a higher
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session on like a longer run-up because
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the longer the run-up the less jumps you
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can do because it's it's more Force
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involved in the takeoff so we do quite a
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lot of like short run-up stuff sorry I
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may have to stop you so many times here
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just asking that's all right because
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like from from clips of scene it looks
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like it's um nine maybe nine steps nine
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steps and then over head and back first
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so is that is that a long run-up a short
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run up standard run-up so that's my long
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run up right
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um oh it's not that long mate yeah no
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it's not it's not so I've got one of the
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shortest run-ups on tour but um that's
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just the way yeah that's just the way I
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do it so we do a lot of like three
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stride and five stride stuff and
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training just because we can kind of
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mimic the same positions as a full run
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up but it doesn't take as much out of
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your body so yeah we might do 20 of
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those in a session but if I was doing
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four run-ups like a big session would be
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like six jobs really yeah it's not much
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why why does it just does it does it
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start to hurt your back does it just
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take it's it's ankles mainly yeah so
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it's a lot of it is just injury
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um it's pretty much like when you're
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taking off there's about I think it's
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like six to ten times your body weight
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goes through your leg so that's a lot of
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force when you're running you know if
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you're an 80 kg
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person and you've got something like 800
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kg is a force going through your your
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leg you can't really sustain that more
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than about six times before something
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just pops so yeah for us it's kind of
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trying to balance how much training we
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need to do to get like the technique and
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then the the speed and the power and all
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that stuff we don't actually do a lot of
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that in the jumping it's more like
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that's why we do gym and that's why we
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do running to try and increase that
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stuff and then we're just sort of trying
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to apply it to the jump right at the end
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that's that surprises me because um and
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I suppose this is a credit to you but
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like if I watch you jump especially if
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it's in slow motion
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um it looks it looks like you're gliding
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it's graceful and it's beautiful and
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it's flowing but it does make a lot of
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sense that six jumps would be the
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maximum because there's a there's a
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[ __ ] lot going on isn't there there's
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a lot of movements yeah so in your brain
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is it just um like muscle memory and
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second nature now or are you still
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thinking so when when I'm in training I
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think a lot like I'm I'm thinking about
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my positions and my cues and what I'm
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trying to do and
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and in training like it freaking hurts
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like you know a bad jump hurts but then
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that's what I love about competing is
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that when you why does it like like just
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because if you're only wrong if you're
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in the wrong position or like something
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isn't quite right or you're trying to
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change something and you sort of like if
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you're trying to change like a position
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on my curve for example because we we
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run in sort of like a bit of a j shape
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so we've got the the first bit of the
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run-up which is like you're trying to
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generate speed and then you hit the
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curve and then that's you trying to like
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generate a body position in order to be
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able to take off and then what that will
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do is that will give you the amount of
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lean to
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Propel yourself over the bar but then
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also give yourself enough rotation to be
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able to go over the bar backwards and so
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that's why we have to do it in a bit of
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a curve but if you're trying to change
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like the angle of that curve or how deep
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it is
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there's always going to be unintended
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consequences of that so I might you know
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my coach might say okay like just try
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and run a bit harder and a bit deeper
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but then you get to the takeoff and
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you're in the wrong position and then
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like it just goes all through your leg
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and just jars something and just you
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know that amount of force
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if you move your leg a little bit and
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it's not conditioned to it can hurt
00:11:57
quite a bit right and what sort of
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heights are we talking about for these
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training sessions
00:12:01
um I've jumped probably
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I'd be happy if I was jumping like 210
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to 220 inch right
00:12:07
um I don't jump as high as I do in
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competition although
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um I have had a couple of sessions where
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I've been really really high and and
00:12:13
quite close to my personal best which
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which is exciting but yeah I'm I'm the
00:12:17
kind of guy who when I get into
00:12:19
competition like you said I look like
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I'm gliding I look like I'm flying and I
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am
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um and it feels so effortless and and
00:12:25
nice because I'm not thinking about
00:12:26
anything I'm just I'm just jumping
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um and yeah those are the the jumps I
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really do it for yeah by the way I do
00:12:33
need to apologize for all the dumb
00:12:34
questions I've got about high jumpers oh
00:12:36
that's right I'm sure I reckon myself
00:12:37
and 99.9 of people I'm gonna say all
00:12:40
your listeners are a high jump experts
00:12:41
I'm sure no I feel like um I mean the
00:12:45
the amazing thing about high jump is
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it's one of those sports that every
00:12:48
single New Zealander gets to have a go
00:12:49
at right you're not even at Primary
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School
00:12:52
um same as you know because there's
00:12:54
sports that you might be good at but you
00:12:56
never know like pole Vol like who gets
00:12:58
to try pole Volvo and the thing the
00:12:59
thing that I love about it as well is
00:13:00
like I feel like I mean I'm biased
00:13:02
obviously but like I feel like it's the
00:13:04
easiest event to compare so for the
00:13:06
average person like jumping eight meters
00:13:09
in the long jump
00:13:10
it's just like they're just like oh yeah
00:13:12
cool it's eight meters or if you if you
00:13:14
run like you know if you're Tanner and
00:13:15
you're running like a Santana that is
00:13:17
like 1500 meter on it like if you're
00:13:19
running
00:13:20
like a 331 it's kind of like oh yeah
00:13:23
that sounds quite but no one knows what
00:13:25
a 331 actually looks like yeah yeah if
00:13:27
you say I jumped 2 meters and 30
00:13:29
centimeters like people know what two
00:13:31
meters looks like and so they go wait
00:13:32
wait what like that's crazy how do you
00:13:35
do that especially if you're comparing
00:13:36
to say like a bad high jump who's like
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maybe you know 170 or 160 it's like that
00:13:41
sounds like a lot of difference whereas
00:13:43
you know seven meters in a long jump
00:13:45
which is kind of like it's decent this
00:13:47
is eight meters which is world class
00:13:48
it's like it sounds about the same yeah
00:13:50
it's I'm guessing most people that
00:13:52
listen to this podcast wouldn't have
00:13:54
done more than like the the scissor jump
00:13:55
no which is what you don't for Primary
00:13:57
School you do now you do the one called
00:13:58
the is it forsbury Fosbury flight named
00:14:02
after uh it was like a an American dude
00:14:04
in the 50s yeah yeah so he um he kind of
00:14:08
like
00:14:09
was like he was like real into high jump
00:14:11
but like wasn't quite good enough to
00:14:12
make the teams and stuff and and I think
00:14:14
yeah I don't know the full story but
00:14:15
essentially he just like figured out one
00:14:17
day he's like wait why are we jumping
00:14:18
like this and they were doing a thing
00:14:20
called the straddle at their time which
00:14:21
is sort of like you take off from the
00:14:22
other side and do this weird thing where
00:14:24
you like
00:14:25
roll over it like yeah yeah yeah yeah
00:14:29
and it's like like people were like like
00:14:32
blowing out their knees and it just
00:14:33
looked ugly as like I've never tried it
00:14:35
but I don't think I'd want to so yeah so
00:14:37
he just he just changed it up and and
00:14:39
ended up making Olympic team he didn't
00:14:40
win or anything but pretty quickly like
00:14:42
after that people went whoa okay like
00:14:44
that's how you do it in and then from
00:14:46
there
00:14:48
it's funny so he was never like the best
00:14:49
but his legacy as having this jump named
00:14:51
after him that yeah he was using today
00:14:53
he was pretty like he was pretty bloody
00:14:55
good like I think he he probably got up
00:14:57
to about 230 and like he wasn't like
00:14:59
getting like 10 technical coaching for
00:15:01
it like he was just doing it he was just
00:15:03
kind of making up as you win which I
00:15:05
wouldn't be jumping too Thirty if I just
00:15:06
made it
00:15:08
um another thing this might be a dumb
00:15:09
question why don't you wear like cycling
00:15:11
gear or something you know what I mean
00:15:13
like a skin type top or bike shorts yeah
00:15:16
it should get asked it quite a bit um I
00:15:19
think the thing is is like so we we were
00:15:21
some people were tight tight shorts um I
00:15:23
prefer split shorts just well especially
00:15:25
if it's you've got the legs exactly mate
00:15:27
you gotta you've got to show the puns um
00:15:30
which is obviously the main reason but
00:15:31
no I think it's kind of one of those
00:15:34
things that like if you're
00:15:35
like the the fabric the weight of the
00:15:39
fabric is not going to knock the bar off
00:15:40
like if you're going to knock the bar
00:15:41
off it's not going to be because you had
00:15:43
a baggy t-shirt on it's because you
00:15:44
knocked the bar off so for us it's kind
00:15:46
of just like whatever you want okay so
00:15:48
it's not like a case of like a one
00:15:49
percenters or anything like that okay
00:15:53
wow okay so you're you're at 2 30 now
00:15:56
what's the what's the world record
00:15:57
what's the best in the world uh 245 is
00:15:59
the best
00:16:00
um and yeah so it's a wee-way way but
00:16:03
you're confident you can do it though
00:16:04
I've heard you an interview saying you
00:16:06
can go I think you can go 10 centimeters
00:16:07
higher I can go 240. like I definitely
00:16:09
have that in me so can we just say
00:16:12
confidence come from all that
00:16:13
self-belief
00:16:14
I don't know like I think
00:16:16
I think it's one of those things like
00:16:17
high jumps to the event where like no
00:16:20
one body type has ever dominated it and
00:16:22
like no one no one country or culture or
00:16:24
anything has dominated it so for me like
00:16:28
I know that like the goods that I've got
00:16:31
uh are different from other guys but
00:16:34
that's my strength and so those things
00:16:37
for me uh I've I've got a really good
00:16:40
knee Drive um so that's a technical
00:16:42
thing
00:16:43
um I'm one of the taller guys in one of
00:16:45
the sort of heavier guys that means I'm
00:16:47
a lot stronger than a lot of those guys
00:16:48
and so I think I think from that
00:16:50
standpoint we've got some stuff that we
00:16:52
can really sort of
00:16:54
hone in on in the next few years and and
00:16:56
sort of make those 10 cinemas happy
00:16:59
happen I I mean I think it's just one of
00:17:00
those things that
00:17:02
I wouldn't be sitting here wanting to
00:17:04
keep jumping if I didn't think that I
00:17:05
was going to do better yeah right yeah
00:17:07
that's good so
00:17:10
um so when did you start taking it
00:17:11
seriously when did you start realizing
00:17:13
you were quite good or was it a case of
00:17:15
like a PE coach shoulder tapping you and
00:17:17
saying hey we should focus on this was
00:17:18
that a school thing or later so yeah so
00:17:21
it was funny I I was
00:17:24
um
00:17:25
I was a bit of a lazy student at school
00:17:27
I should say
00:17:29
um I think that it was one of those
00:17:31
things where our turn up and I would I'd
00:17:33
jump well
00:17:34
um and I'd run decently and you know I I
00:17:37
sort of I you know I went to school and
00:17:39
I did my thing and all my teachers
00:17:42
um and you know and my subjects were
00:17:43
always like oh he did well but you know
00:17:46
he probably could have never replied and
00:17:47
tried a bit harder you know that kind of
00:17:48
stuff and it was the same for the
00:17:50
Athletics guys it was like like oh you
00:17:52
know occur because I went to Auckland
00:17:54
Grandma which is quite a you know
00:17:55
Traditional School oh cool you know if
00:17:57
you turn up to training you'd be really
00:17:59
good and I was like yeah but see I don't
00:18:00
want to train like this sounds boring I
00:18:03
don't want to wake up so I think I think
00:18:05
for me I was sort of very cheeky in that
00:18:06
respect and just kind of like just brush
00:18:08
it off so I yeah I jumped 208 at the end
00:18:10
of school
00:18:12
um which which you know is that good for
00:18:14
um it's pretty good I won a national I
00:18:18
won national security schools with that
00:18:19
and that was my first national title and
00:18:21
so that was that was pretty good
00:18:23
um but then I actually went to Union
00:18:24
gave it away I he went to Massey and
00:18:28
Palmerston North
00:18:29
I'm from palmy
00:18:31
um so you you condolences
00:18:33
what were you studying
00:18:35
um so I did a bcom in agriculture right
00:18:39
okay yeah and you you gave it away so
00:18:42
you got to enjoy the full
00:18:44
um Palmer's North uni experience yeah I
00:18:45
just like I just like couldn't be
00:18:48
bothered with like I'd grown a lot and
00:18:49
so I was sort of always injured and high
00:18:51
jumped with something there I was good
00:18:52
at but it kind of hurt and I didn't
00:18:53
really enjoy it so well I didn't think I
00:18:55
really enjoyed it
00:18:57
um so yeah I just went to Union and was
00:18:58
like look I just want to like party for
00:19:00
a few years and and just kind of meet
00:19:01
people and just you know
00:19:03
not have the pressure of like having to
00:19:06
like you know be accountable to anything
00:19:08
or just just kind of do whatever I
00:19:09
wanted and so
00:19:11
I did that and then what did you do to
00:19:14
keep fitting that time because you
00:19:15
obviously didn't blow out completely uh
00:19:17
like I was really lucky I actually I
00:19:19
actually teed up an Athletics coach
00:19:21
um down there before I moved down there
00:19:23
and then I sort of like and then I sort
00:19:25
of didn't really apply myself once I was
00:19:26
down there but um she was super super
00:19:28
patient with me so as a lady called Ann
00:19:30
Thompson and she is a sort of local
00:19:32
jumps coach down in palmy
00:19:35
um and she she was so awesome like she
00:19:37
probably once every two weeks would just
00:19:39
like send me a text and be like you know
00:19:41
she knew I had quite a good amount of
00:19:43
potential and she sort of was like look
00:19:45
like we've been training on these days
00:19:46
they just come down if you want like but
00:19:48
no pressure If you don't want to and
00:19:50
like half the time I wouldn't even reply
00:19:51
to her I'd just be like yeah
00:20:08
yeah so so yeah so that was sort of um
00:20:11
but she just keep like whittling away at
00:20:13
me and and yeah I mean I did tune-up
00:20:15
train a little bit like I I sort of I
00:20:17
went to the odd training here and there
00:20:19
and actually in my summer
00:20:21
between first and second year I got a
00:20:23
job on a farm because we had to do sort
00:20:25
of like a placement yeah yeah exactly we
00:20:27
had to do some practical work and that
00:20:28
was honestly the best summer ever
00:20:29
because I didn't even check the
00:20:31
Athletics results or anything I just
00:20:32
couldn't knock here like I was I was
00:20:34
drinking beers and shooting rabbits and
00:20:36
just living the farm life which which
00:20:38
was awesome and that kept me really fit
00:20:39
as well so I kind of got back into it
00:20:43
um after having I actually spoke
00:20:46
um at the Massey Academy of sport a
00:20:47
couple of times just around my
00:20:48
experiences and stuff because I won the
00:20:51
open national champs fresh out of high
00:20:53
school as well so I won secondary
00:20:54
schools and then under 20 Nationals and
00:20:57
open Nationals
00:20:58
um all in the same year and the only
00:20:59
other person who did that was Eliza who
00:21:01
then right yeah later on that yeah ended
00:21:03
up going to Rio and that's right bronze
00:21:06
medal so it was her and then and then
00:21:07
this other guy from from Auckland
00:21:09
grammar who kind of mucked around and
00:21:11
did nothing so so yeah so I got to I got
00:21:13
to speak about my experiences with them
00:21:15
and and writing them it made me realize
00:21:17
how much I missed it um and just just
00:21:19
the camaraderie and and and kind of just
00:21:21
going down to the track on a sunny day
00:21:23
and and just just hanging out with my
00:21:25
mates it was like damn this is so cool
00:21:27
and it was actually funny like
00:21:29
I I had this sort of spite of you know
00:21:32
it was about a couple of months where I
00:21:33
just kept on meeting all these really
00:21:34
old people
00:21:35
um just for various reasons they're all
00:21:37
like oh so what do you do and I sort of
00:21:39
said you know I'm at Uni and I do a bit
00:21:40
of Athletics as well I'm like oh I used
00:21:42
to do athletics you know it's like these
00:21:44
big fat guys like I used to run 100
00:21:46
meters I made Nationals and I was just
00:21:48
like oh man like I do not want to be one
00:21:51
of those people who like and so that
00:21:53
kind of just made me realize I was like
00:21:54
look if I want to do this like
00:21:57
yeah I want to be I want to be able to
00:21:58
sort of sit there when I'm you know 80
00:22:01
and my knees and ankles will be absolute
00:22:04
stuffed and I'll just be like it's all
00:22:05
good because because I did it well you
00:22:07
got some um
00:22:08
um well I was going to say silverware
00:22:10
but like gold wear now it's like a
00:22:11
tangible you know sort of bit of proof
00:22:14
of of your achievements
00:22:15
um
00:22:16
so the university thing so I suppose
00:22:18
there's two ways of looking at it I mean
00:22:19
there's um you you know you could say
00:22:22
that those three years you didn't make
00:22:24
any gains and if you kept working
00:22:27
through those three years you could be
00:22:28
at 240 now potentially yeah
00:22:32
I don't know I don't think so like I
00:22:34
mean you might you might be alluding to
00:22:36
this and what was going to be your next
00:22:37
point but for me like I grew up as a
00:22:40
person
00:22:41
um and I think that was the massive
00:22:42
thing like I see so many athletes these
00:22:44
days who didn't do that and now it's
00:22:47
like they're trying to like
00:22:49
train and then also like fit in this
00:22:51
like partying and like this life that's
00:22:53
like not conducive to getting better in
00:22:55
athletics but then also like the
00:22:56
Athletics is taking away from the social
00:22:58
life and it's like you know people are
00:23:00
trying to balance all the stuff whereas
00:23:01
for me it was great because
00:23:03
and like some people can do it like
00:23:04
don't get me wrong but like for me it
00:23:06
was kind of like look I could do all
00:23:07
that I blew it all out and I realized
00:23:09
that like it was fun but you know it
00:23:11
wasn't for me I wanted to be an athlete
00:23:13
and so now I'm an athlete and you know
00:23:16
on those hard days and those hard
00:23:17
trainings like
00:23:18
when I do question it because you know
00:23:20
everyone questions it's you know what
00:23:22
the heck am I doing here at Christchurch
00:23:24
boys high on a on a five degree morning
00:23:26
like it's just like it sucks but it's
00:23:29
like you know I I did the bit of my
00:23:31
career when I didn't have Athletics and
00:23:34
now I know what it's like and so that's
00:23:36
what holds on what I hold on to yeah oh
00:23:38
yeah I mean that's probably exactly what
00:23:40
I was going to say it's like um there's
00:23:41
sacrifices that you have to make and it
00:23:43
was probably good to get that out of
00:23:43
your system rather than potentially be
00:23:46
at the age you are now when a gold medal
00:23:48
and think that's what I've sacrificed
00:23:49
enough and now I'm ready to retire yeah
00:23:51
and that's the thing that um I see a lot
00:23:52
with like the Collegiate athletes um so
00:23:55
the guys who go over to America and
00:23:56
stuff and it looks like such an amazing
00:23:58
opportunity like I've I'm kind of
00:24:00
jealous I didn't do it but at the same
00:24:02
time like
00:24:04
you're held accountable to something
00:24:06
that's not just uni and you do have to
00:24:08
balance that yeah it's something that I
00:24:10
just personally don't think I was ready
00:24:11
for
00:24:13
yeah oh fear enough well I mean
00:24:15
everything's worked out fine hasn't it
00:24:16
yeah it's gone um yeah so how good with
00:24:19
the power is how where were you living
00:24:20
by the way were you in like a hall of
00:24:22
residence or yeah size and Hall's first
00:24:24
year and then I was and I was on
00:24:27
Botanical Road oh yeah yeah and then in
00:24:29
third year oh Flash from
00:24:33
um right I wasn't in that part of it
00:24:36
and we were the places that you went
00:24:39
what are the bars I haven't lived in
00:24:40
palmy for like a long time now there was
00:24:42
like there was only two when I was there
00:24:44
so it was the daily and then Shooters
00:24:46
and then oh yeah yeah old Shooters and
00:24:49
then and then about halfway through like
00:24:51
the daily shutdown
00:24:53
but then they like bought Shooters and
00:24:56
so then Shooters was at the daily
00:24:58
but there was like four different bars
00:25:00
in that one and that was like the only
00:25:01
place in Palm Beach there was like a
00:25:03
couple of like nuts and places but come
00:25:05
on we're students like we don't want to
00:25:06
go to those places and so yeah it was
00:25:08
sort of a little bit slim picking some
00:25:09
party but no just you know
00:25:11
a lot of really good nights there and a
00:25:13
lot of fond memories to be had oh yeah
00:25:15
it's a great yeah it's a funny place
00:25:17
when you live there as a permanent
00:25:18
resident it's um it's a strange place
00:25:20
when the university shuts down it's a
00:25:22
very different vibe but yeah the
00:25:23
university really injects some vibrancy
00:25:25
into it I remember the first the first
00:25:27
time I went to palmy I was like on an
00:25:29
inter-provincial trip um so I was like
00:25:31
Athletics I was like 16 or something and
00:25:33
like you said like uni wasn't on and so
00:25:35
we stayed in Halls of residence and we
00:25:37
competed at the track because the track
00:25:38
is in the uni
00:25:40
um and I I vividly remember like we were
00:25:42
on the bus leaving palmy and it said
00:25:44
like you're just leaving palmy now and I
00:25:46
thought to myself I was like I'm never
00:25:48
coming back here like I'm so glad I'm
00:25:50
leaving behind me and then two years
00:25:52
later I was moving there to go to UNI so
00:25:54
I mean I guess I proved myself wrong
00:25:55
didn't I yeah I I love the place I got
00:25:58
so many fond memories yeah yeah it's um
00:26:00
it is weird though like being so
00:26:01
landlocked like you are so far from the
00:26:03
nearest oceans and the nearest oceans
00:26:04
are [ __ ] house yeah and it's so like
00:26:06
it's it's a yeah it's a great City and
00:26:09
it was really funny like going to UNI
00:26:11
with a lot of farmy people and you know
00:26:14
they were kind of like oh moving to the
00:26:16
big city for for uni and then I was just
00:26:18
like fresh out of central Auckland like
00:26:20
what do you mean the big city like
00:26:32
yeah they run out pretty quick yeah okay
00:26:34
so um so you get back to it so what year
00:26:36
do you get back to it
00:26:38
um so like four years ago yeah so I
00:26:41
fully committed in 2018. I started
00:26:44
training in 2017 but
00:26:45
um that was like the end of my degree
00:26:48
um I met Terry who's my current coach
00:26:51
and he we like we just clipped like he
00:26:54
he was the first guy in New Zealand who
00:26:56
had actually kind of
00:26:57
removed like the whole oh you've got
00:27:00
amazing potential and like you could do
00:27:02
this but we don't really know how to
00:27:04
train you because no one's ever trained
00:27:05
a high jumper before he kind of he sat
00:27:07
me down and like literally in the first
00:27:08
conversation we had
00:27:10
um so we're actually on a tour we I
00:27:12
qualified for something called world
00:27:13
unigames and we went to Taiwan
00:27:16
um well I should say Taipei they
00:27:19
had their uni games there and we we did
00:27:22
sort of like four weeks together and he
00:27:23
he just put me through my training
00:27:25
program that my coach had sort of put me
00:27:27
through and
00:27:29
um and just sat there and kind of was
00:27:30
obviously like you know taking mental
00:27:31
notes and I said afterwards I was like
00:27:33
look mate like
00:27:35
I've had a taste of this like I think
00:27:37
that I could be interested in taking a
00:27:38
little bit further like what do you
00:27:39
think I need to do and he sat me down
00:27:42
and he sort of thought about it for a
00:27:44
bit and he was like okay well I've got
00:27:46
two points he's like firstly
00:27:49
you're jumping so well given how shitty
00:27:51
your Technique is
00:27:52
and secondly you're too fat
00:27:55
and I was just like
00:27:57
whoa okay like
00:28:00
can you get away with it I suppose
00:28:02
he didn't say in that many words but
00:28:05
like any and he knew that I was someone
00:28:06
who could handle that yeah yeah yeah and
00:28:09
suppose that's the thing it's like being
00:28:10
a good coach as part psychologist he
00:28:12
wouldn't be saying that to everybody
00:28:12
that's for sure like don't worry about
00:28:14
that but yeah it's like it's
00:28:16
it was just like a brief appreciate I
00:28:18
have someone like tell me how it is
00:28:20
because I always knew that it was more I
00:28:22
always knew that I could be doing better
00:28:23
but you know a lot of people were kind
00:28:24
of like oh you know like just keep doing
00:28:26
what you're doing and you'll get better
00:28:27
and I was like no I don't want to keep
00:28:28
doing what I'm doing like I want to I
00:28:30
want to actually take it seriously I
00:28:31
want to you know do a proper training
00:28:33
program and I'm quite an injury point or
00:28:35
an athlete at that time so I was sort of
00:28:37
like well I want to address that I don't
00:28:39
want to just sit there and just kind of
00:28:40
keep getting injured and so I sort of we
00:28:44
delve deeper into it and he kind of said
00:28:45
look like this is where I think you
00:28:47
could get to and and and these are the
00:28:49
steps that we we can take to do that and
00:28:51
so I kind of sat there and I thought
00:28:53
about it for a while I sort of had half
00:28:54
semester left in palmy
00:28:56
um to go and yeah I got to the end and I
00:28:59
just texted him I was like hey would you
00:29:00
be keen on me moving down and getting
00:29:02
into it and he's like yeah let's do it
00:29:03
move there and the rest is kind of
00:29:05
History yeah oh that's awesome it seems
00:29:08
like a good relationship too I've seen
00:29:09
some um interviews online that um he's
00:29:11
done and he talks about how
00:29:14
um some days you turn up to training in
00:29:15
a bad mood or a negative mood and he
00:29:17
yeah and sometimes he does too so
00:29:24
well I suppose that's the thing it's
00:29:26
like it's not like um the coach of a
00:29:28
rugby team whether is 15 or 15 yeah 25
00:29:31
people there it's like just you and him
00:29:33
but it's a big commitment on his part as
00:29:35
well right so I suppose he like he's
00:29:37
there for you and you're there for him
00:29:38
and neither wants to let the other one
00:29:40
down yeah 100 I mean we've got a few
00:29:42
other athletes in our Squad um okay yeah
00:29:44
so there's a couple others but it's
00:29:46
it's one of those things that like Terry
00:29:48
he's employed by I think she's on and
00:29:50
he's kind of he always has been he's
00:29:51
just part of the furniture There like he
00:29:54
um he's kind of moved through a lot of
00:29:55
different roles in his time there
00:29:58
um
00:29:58
but he's always prided himself in being
00:30:01
a performance Coach and he's he's never
00:30:03
really he's had a couple of athletes
00:30:05
like get close but no one really like
00:30:07
breaks through so I think I think it was
00:30:11
kind of yeah there is a big commitment
00:30:12
commitment from both of us like it's
00:30:15
I know that
00:30:17
what I'm giving him is just as important
00:30:20
well it's not just as important but it
00:30:22
is pretty special and you know what he
00:30:24
gives me is is massive for me as well
00:30:26
and so there's a you know there's a
00:30:27
massive trust trust relationship there
00:30:29
and and it's something that yeah we do
00:30:32
kind of like I said we've got a training
00:30:34
Squad but
00:30:35
um at the end of the day you know when
00:30:36
you're sitting sitting there having a
00:30:38
beer after Tokyo or you know having
00:30:40
having won com games like that is just
00:30:43
us there and it is pretty special yeah
00:30:46
and that this probably sounds real
00:30:47
cheesy but that gold medal it's got to
00:30:49
feel like it says as well oh 100 like
00:30:51
hey yeah it is it says gold medal and
00:30:55
it's it's late last year it's like that
00:30:56
was his Olympics
00:30:58
how good is that God they're so special
00:30:59
like and it must feel so good as an
00:31:01
athlete that you you can you do it for
00:31:03
yourself but it's also like giving back
00:31:04
to him oh and it's like you were saying
00:31:06
thank you yeah yeah it's great I mean
00:31:08
you know there's a lot of people in the
00:31:09
in the program who who I owe a huge
00:31:12
amount to and Interiors is is the
00:31:15
biggest one of those right that's he's
00:31:16
not the only one there's there's so many
00:31:18
guys around me who who do put so much
00:31:20
into me and so it kind of scares me a
00:31:22
lot like I think about a lot it's kind
00:31:24
of like you know I'm in a position now
00:31:26
where
00:31:27
where people are invested in this and
00:31:28
you know I've got to make the most of
00:31:30
that because that's not going to happen
00:31:31
for the rest of my life you know it's
00:31:33
not always going to be like that yeah
00:31:34
absolutely so so you've only had two
00:31:36
coaches so you've got the coach got now
00:31:38
and you have the Chris who passed away
00:31:40
of cancer yeah so I've had a couple but
00:31:42
um the two big the big founding ones
00:31:44
would be and the palmy one who
00:31:47
who patient with me
00:31:48
um Terry and then yeah Chris as you said
00:31:50
so what's question your secondary like
00:31:52
secondary school age coach yeah so he
00:31:54
was kind of my first
00:31:55
um serious Coach and and he was great
00:31:57
because he
00:31:59
he just like didn't
00:32:01
he just wanted us to play sport like he
00:32:03
wasn't like you're a high jumper he was
00:32:05
like you're just an athlete so if you
00:32:07
wanted to go to play rugby on a day with
00:32:09
his training he was just like just don't
00:32:11
and I remember it was funny like
00:32:13
I always used to have to bike training
00:32:15
so my mum was like look you can play you
00:32:16
know we'll play we'll play the fees
00:32:18
we'll pay the subs but you've got to get
00:32:19
yourself there there was always the
00:32:20
thing that that they sort of instilled
00:32:23
in me and so
00:32:25
um and I live in Mount Eden training's
00:32:26
in Mount smart so it's you know it's a
00:32:28
pretty it's a hike it's a pretty sizable
00:32:31
um distance to travel and Mum would come
00:32:32
and pick me up quite often so it wasn't
00:32:34
like I was going both ways but yeah it
00:32:36
was still and I remember I remember mum
00:32:38
came to pick me up one day and I was
00:32:40
like oh I'm gonna here we go I'm gonna
00:32:42
play Chris like play Chris off on mum
00:32:44
and so I was like Chris like
00:32:46
I've trained way better if I like had if
00:32:49
I didn't bike to training anyway you
00:32:51
know Mom should drop me off and he he
00:32:53
just looks at me and he's like
00:32:55
mate it's a bike to and from training
00:32:58
you're getting picked up like stop being
00:33:00
such a little like lazy little [ __ ] you
00:33:03
know and it was what Chris was like he
00:33:04
was like look like you're not here to
00:33:06
train to be a high jumper you're just
00:33:07
you're just you know growing up you're
00:33:09
just being an athlete and so it was that
00:33:11
was kind of always this thing and then
00:33:13
yeah unfortunately like
00:33:15
I think
00:33:16
um there was one year where I wasn't
00:33:17
doing a huge amount of training just
00:33:19
because I had some other stuff on I
00:33:20
think I had an injury and
00:33:22
um so I didn't do any of the club stuff
00:33:23
and so I didn't go down training much
00:33:24
and I I still did the
00:33:26
the
00:33:26
[Music]
00:33:28
um
00:33:28
the secondary school stuff but he got
00:33:32
cancer sort of at the start of the
00:33:33
season and I actually
00:33:36
near the end of the season I came out
00:33:38
and won North Island championships which
00:33:42
was one of the first big things I've
00:33:43
done and I talked to him really briefly
00:33:46
um via text about it but
00:33:48
he unfortunately and I I was I was um I
00:33:51
was like managed to go and chat to him
00:33:53
and just say thanks and stuff and yeah
00:33:55
the next week he was gone so how old was
00:33:58
he uh he was 50. right how old were you
00:34:00
at the time I would have been 16. was
00:34:03
was that your first sort of experience
00:34:04
with um someone you're close to yeah
00:34:07
definitely like I think
00:34:08
um it was just super crazy like
00:34:11
I just felt bad like I wasn't really
00:34:13
there that much that season and I'd only
00:34:15
seen him a couple of times and and the
00:34:16
times that I had like he just he was
00:34:18
just wasting away and I mean he left he
00:34:21
left four children behind and you know I
00:34:23
love him a loving wife and and you know
00:34:25
just a massive hole of all these
00:34:27
athletes who who he just loved like his
00:34:29
own children and and supported us so it
00:34:31
was it was pretty humbling um I I will
00:34:34
never forget made the text I got when it
00:34:36
happened
00:34:37
um I was sitting in in I think it was in
00:34:39
physics and yeah like my one of my best
00:34:42
mates who I used to train with as well
00:34:43
he texts me and he was just like yeah
00:34:44
Chris Chris has passed away and it was
00:34:46
just like damn like that's it's pretty
00:34:49
pretty scary
00:34:51
um pretty confronting as a child as well
00:34:53
like just to have that happen so yeah I
00:34:55
think that kind of I think about them a
00:34:57
lot like even now
00:34:58
um you know on those on those hard days
00:35:00
and the trainings where where I you know
00:35:02
I do need to dig a little bit deeper you
00:35:04
know I'll give them thanks and just be
00:35:06
like you know
00:35:07
I'm here because of Herman and I think
00:35:08
the cool thing is is that of the
00:35:11
athletes that he coached there was about
00:35:13
four of us who are up till quite
00:35:14
recently we're all still doing the sport
00:35:16
and you know for a sport where there's a
00:35:19
massive Dropout to have that many
00:35:20
athletes still going that's that's
00:35:22
pretty pretty cool yeah and um I I don't
00:35:25
want to put words in your mouth or
00:35:27
anything but like when when you reach
00:35:28
the Pinnacle of your sport and you're
00:35:30
like you're standing there with a gold
00:35:31
medal around your neck
00:35:32
um you know did he like crop into your
00:35:35
mind or of course you're just thinking
00:35:37
about just how [ __ ] awesome this
00:35:39
moment is no I mean he definitely does
00:35:41
like I think
00:35:42
I think that's the thing I mean you know
00:35:44
when I'm standing up there I'm not
00:35:45
standing up there alone there's there's
00:35:47
so many people in the camp who are who
00:35:49
are working really hard and and yeah I
00:35:51
think of Chris constantly and any
00:35:53
someone who'll always be there for me so
00:35:55
it's really cool yeah how was school for
00:35:57
you were you were you bullied or
00:35:58
anything or you know I sort of find
00:36:01
everyone that's on the podcast everyone
00:36:02
on the podcast
00:36:04
um has has a [ __ ] going on even people
00:36:06
that seem to have the most amazing lives
00:36:07
everyone has their [ __ ] going on or
00:36:09
everyone's either they feel bad because
00:36:11
they they did some bullying at school or
00:36:14
they were a bully like no one gets out
00:36:15
alive
00:36:16
but you you I mean you're a tall dude
00:36:19
it's a funny concept day like and I was
00:36:20
thinking about it on the way here
00:36:22
um just throughout my childhood and and
00:36:24
sort of what what things I'd say and
00:36:25
it's it's funny you saying that everyone
00:36:27
has [ __ ] going on because like I
00:36:29
remember mum saying this to me as a when
00:36:32
I was a kid and and I'll never forget
00:36:33
this and I'll always tell you know all
00:36:35
my kids this and everything and it was
00:36:36
like
00:36:37
she said to me like because I was just
00:36:39
having like a bad day one day and and
00:36:40
she's like look like if you don't get
00:36:43
through your teenage years by being at
00:36:46
least a little bit [ __ ] up like you're
00:36:48
not doing it right and I'll just always
00:36:49
remember that because it's like you know
00:36:52
wait it's just you've got to learn how
00:36:55
to grow up like there's just so many
00:36:57
things and you've got to work out who
00:36:58
you are as a person I think for me like
00:37:01
um I try to pretty much just get away
00:37:03
with as little as possible at school
00:37:04
that was my thing so I mean I've always
00:37:07
got like
00:37:08
I wasn't disliked and I ended up being a
00:37:11
prefect by like I don't even know how I
00:37:13
think it was probably just because like
00:37:14
I was white and good at sports so
00:37:17
I took all the Auckland grammar books
00:37:19
exactly
00:37:20
um so
00:37:23
um yeah I mean I've became a free fig
00:37:25
but like it's just like I
00:37:27
I kind of always hang out with the guys
00:37:29
who are doing like the dodgy stuff but I
00:37:31
always hid my like I was always looking
00:37:32
to like see when the teachers are coming
00:37:34
and I'd sort of just like blend back
00:37:36
into the background so no I think I
00:37:39
think that
00:37:40
yeah I wasn't bullied
00:37:42
um and I would like to think that
00:37:44
there's not too many people out there
00:37:45
who think that I bullied them yeah oh
00:37:47
that's good yeah it's it's yeah I'm sure
00:37:49
that is probably a couple out there well
00:37:51
I mean that's that's the thing I went to
00:37:53
a similar school I went to Palmerston
00:37:55
North boys High and um I feel like
00:37:56
everyone sort of gets I don't know
00:37:58
bullied to agree for the whatever
00:38:00
whatever it is if you've got prices
00:38:01
that'll be the thing you've got big ears
00:38:03
that's the thing glasses
00:38:04
um but what yeah I mean what do you say
00:38:06
to you
00:38:07
what's the street what's what's the
00:38:09
weather like upstairs yeah yeah pretty
00:38:12
much it was just like yeah you could
00:38:14
always see me coming so you could always
00:38:16
line them up get them ready oh there's a
00:38:18
bit of resilience doesn't it absolutely
00:38:20
yeah and what's your family like so you
00:38:22
were one of four so yeah so four
00:38:25
siblings
00:38:26
um then mum dad obviously so
00:38:28
yeah we like mum and dads so dad's a
00:38:33
doctor
00:38:34
um he is a cardiologist and Mum as a
00:38:37
speech therapist so both you know pretty
00:38:39
professional
00:38:40
um jobs growing up like they they always
00:38:44
just
00:38:45
like I think Dad has always been a
00:38:47
massive inspiration to me just because
00:38:49
of how hard he works I think that's
00:38:51
something that is really cool like he
00:38:52
just
00:38:53
like I didn't see him much when I was
00:38:55
growing up unfortunately but I knew that
00:38:56
he was out there why is that oh just
00:38:58
because he was working so working so
00:39:00
hard like and I think that was cool
00:39:01
though because it was like
00:39:03
you could tell that it was something
00:39:04
that he really loved and and he found
00:39:06
really really rewarding and I mean like
00:39:08
come on he's he's saving lives like he's
00:39:10
literally making massive change in
00:39:12
people's lives every day like it's a
00:39:13
reasonable excuse to miss dinner isn't
00:39:15
it yeah 100 and I was kind of looking at
00:39:17
that I was like oh that's so cool so
00:39:18
yeah but no like all the kids have um
00:39:21
we've kind of
00:39:23
like I mean they'd cringe at me saying
00:39:26
this but I'd like to think we're sort of
00:39:27
a bit of a high performance family a
00:39:28
like it's we've all done very different
00:39:30
things
00:39:31
um my older sister
00:39:33
has gone into family trades so she's a
00:39:36
doctor as well um and then my little
00:39:38
sister studying law and my little
00:39:39
brother's just graduating um with a
00:39:41
computer science degree so kind of all
00:39:43
doing
00:39:44
very different things but at the same
00:39:46
time like working really hard on them
00:39:47
and I think that's massive credit to the
00:39:49
way we were brought up and and the way
00:39:50
we used to work hard so you'll probably
00:39:52
follow the black sheep of the family and
00:39:53
the respect that you probably earn the
00:39:55
least money out of them I've got high
00:39:57
performance Sports personally yeah so
00:39:58
everyone's like oh so like what you know
00:40:00
I'm like oh well we've got the doctor
00:40:01
granddad's a surgeon like sister's a
00:40:05
doctor and I jump over stuff but my mama
00:40:09
got me a list
00:40:11
oh yeah you're gonna melt it down
00:40:14
oh that's cool and there's um you knew
00:40:17
you were telling me before we started
00:40:18
recording um so there's there's a bit of
00:40:20
an age gap between um you and um your
00:40:23
younger siblings who are twins because
00:40:24
your dad had a cancer scare yeah so Dom
00:40:26
was roasting me um saying that my little
00:40:29
brother and sister were a mistake but um
00:40:30
well no there's a five-year age Gap I
00:40:32
asked to play run plan yeah but no so so
00:40:36
um we were actually so it was actually
00:40:37
interesting we were living in America at
00:40:38
the time because Dad had a job over
00:40:39
there um which was actually really lucky
00:40:41
because they
00:40:44
um as people probably know their Health
00:40:45
Systems interesting to say the least but
00:40:48
since Dad was an employee and a doctor
00:40:50
he got like five star care they they got
00:40:53
onto it really quickly and they just
00:40:55
literally just threw everything at it
00:40:58
um and so yeah he came away he's
00:41:00
he's been cancer-free for you know my
00:41:03
entire life which is Super Lucky but
00:41:04
yeah it meant that having kids was a
00:41:06
little bit harder um after me
00:41:09
um which I claim I have nothing to do
00:41:11
with but you know you never know um no
00:41:14
so so James and Rebecca were IVF right
00:41:17
right and yeah that's that's a bit of a
00:41:20
I like to rub in their faces but because
00:41:22
it's always like oh you know life is
00:41:24
priceless except for the James yeah
00:41:28
I just always put on them so was it um
00:41:31
is it yeah are they biological like or
00:41:33
is it donor sperm no so it's so it is
00:41:35
dead sperm um and it's mum's egg so
00:41:37
they're fully they're fully part of the
00:41:39
family right right
00:41:41
um and and yeah so that's that's also
00:41:43
why they're twins because quite often um
00:41:46
I think it's still quite common but in
00:41:47
the early days IVF they had to put quite
00:41:49
a few fertilized eggs and just uh just
00:41:52
to get one to stick so
00:41:54
um so obviously two came out yeah I will
00:41:56
tell you that I'm thinking of him
00:41:57
because I went through the whole IV
00:41:58
thing and I I had to I had to I had this
00:42:01
tumor in my abdomen area which means um
00:42:03
yeah I've got issues down there and I
00:42:05
had to have a what's called a testicular
00:42:07
biopsy to get the sperm up to harvest
00:42:09
the sperm so if your dad did that
00:42:11
yeah I don't know I should actually ask
00:42:14
him yeah
00:42:15
I probably shouldn't say no yeah all
00:42:19
right well that's cool
00:42:21
um okay so we'll go to
00:42:23
Kyo last year for the Olympic games
00:42:26
um I mean you I suppose you've got
00:42:28
nothing to compare it to in terms of
00:42:29
Olympics but it was it'll go down in
00:42:31
history with the [ __ ] Olympics right
00:42:32
it's the one we had masks on Covert
00:42:34
Olympics testing your ear
00:42:36
covert Olympics testing every day
00:42:39
being socially distanced
00:42:41
um so we're
00:42:43
what was the expectation for you there
00:42:45
like we used were you just happy to be a
00:42:47
participant
00:42:48
yeah so it was a funny one like
00:42:50
um I sorry
00:42:52
didn't you like [ __ ] the beard leading
00:42:54
up to it yeah yeah so what was funny so
00:42:57
in 2019 I
00:42:59
broke onto the stage I went to my first
00:43:02
world Champs um
00:43:04
oh mate you're putting the hard
00:43:06
questions on me I have some water
00:43:10
I'm a little bit hot yeah
00:43:13
you can just edit that out yeah all
00:43:15
right why not
00:43:21
yeah
00:43:24
yeah
00:43:25
um yeah yeah so yeah it had a yeah
00:43:27
leading up to Tokyo yeah so so 2019
00:43:31
2019 I
00:43:33
was going on
00:43:37
I think you just got emotional talking
00:43:38
about your dad's sperm yeah
00:43:41
yeah that's where it all began for you
00:43:49
as well are you okay
00:44:06
hey little boy
00:44:23
have you
00:44:24
yeah what is that it's like a frog in
00:44:27
your throat
00:44:35
actually like I'll be fine yeah
00:44:45
I wouldn't even be surprised because I
00:44:46
ran this morning really yeah well
00:44:48
because I'm so like I'm so unfair
00:44:52
like I'm [ __ ] to do that sort of thing
00:44:54
yeah yeah
00:45:05
we'll see how that is if you're 15 cases
00:45:07
yeah I stoked yeah I did but I started
00:45:11
thank you
00:45:14
oh yeah so um ISO uh take you take Ellen
00:45:18
takes um yeah didn't have it like a set
00:45:20
time leading up to that yeah so it was a
00:45:22
funny one like we obviously hadn't left
00:45:24
the country for uh years a couple of
00:45:26
years a couple of years and so
00:45:28
um
00:45:29
my
00:45:31
yeah my build up was kind of a little
00:45:32
bit like it wasn't patchy but it was a
00:45:35
little bit uncertain like I didn't
00:45:36
really know where I was at um I hadn't
00:45:38
competing it's near the big boys for a
00:45:40
while and I yeah so I I went over to
00:45:44
Aussie and did a little bit of training
00:45:47
over there just because it's a little
00:45:48
bit warmer and for a for a Caribbean
00:45:50
athlete you know trying to get into as
00:45:52
much hate as possible is really
00:45:53
important for us
00:45:55
um and in my last competition sorry I
00:45:58
lied it was actually my second last
00:45:59
competition before Tokyo so it was about
00:46:01
three weeks out
00:46:02
I
00:46:05
yes wait
00:46:10
yeah so about about three weeks out I um
00:46:14
I did this competition and I wanted to
00:46:17
start at the starting height because
00:46:18
quite often it's hard to start at a
00:46:20
really high so I obviously mentioned I
00:46:22
started about 217 um in comps but in New
00:46:25
Zealand I can't start that high because
00:46:26
I have to wait for everyone else to go
00:46:28
and you sort of you warm down a little
00:46:29
bit and there's a bit of time between so
00:46:31
so generally I'd start it's sort of like
00:46:33
210 but I knew at Tokyo it was going to
00:46:36
start high and so I was like okay this
00:46:37
competition the goal is to start high
00:46:39
and just and just see what happens and
00:46:41
so I started at 2 15 which wasn't even
00:46:43
the starting height for the Olympics but
00:46:45
it was like because I think I think in
00:46:47
the Olympics for the final we started at
00:46:48
219. oh [ __ ] um and yeah so start at 215
00:46:53
warmed up felt okay and then I literally
00:46:56
know how to so that means I got three
00:46:58
misses at 215. you just knock the bar
00:47:01
off so you don't pass any of the jumps
00:47:02
didn't pass any jumps um just knock the
00:47:05
bar off three times in a row and and I
00:47:07
don't really know why it was kind of
00:47:08
like
00:47:10
what is going on here because after you
00:47:12
after your first no jump to your chat to
00:47:14
your coach and he says yeah yeah yeah
00:47:16
and he was kind of like oh
00:47:19
it just looks off like like I think he
00:47:21
was a little bit of a loss as well
00:47:23
um it's a bit of work if the coach's
00:47:24
like I don't know yeah yeah and so it
00:47:27
was kind of like oh just you know
00:47:29
because because I'm a very Rhythm jump
00:47:30
like base jumper so it's like if my
00:47:32
rhythm's not there then
00:47:34
you know like I have to do some sort of
00:47:36
intervention pretty quickly and some
00:47:38
sort of research and so yeah so I know I
00:47:40
did
00:47:40
um
00:47:41
and for about a week I just didn't sleep
00:47:45
because I was just like I've forgotten
00:47:46
how to jump like I don't know what's
00:47:48
going on
00:47:49
um and I'm gonna go to you know the
00:47:52
biggest event in the world in three
00:47:54
weeks time and not even make a height
00:47:56
like that was for me that was like at
00:48:00
that time the worst thing that could
00:48:01
happen like like a confidence crisis oh
00:48:04
absolutely and it was just like you know
00:48:05
like I'm just gonna look like an idiot
00:48:07
and like everyone's just gonna be like
00:48:08
what the heck are you doing and you know
00:48:10
I just had all these like real rational
00:48:12
thoughts in my head
00:48:13
um and I literally yeah I just I just
00:48:15
wake up in the middle of the night and
00:48:16
just be like oh no it's happening again
00:48:18
and just like you know it all just
00:48:20
spiraled through my head and it was just
00:48:21
yeah it was horrible but
00:48:23
um we actually
00:48:26
so we're in Australia at that time and
00:48:28
then we had planned and it was just that
00:48:30
was me my coach and my girlfriend so my
00:48:33
girlfriend does Athletics as well she's
00:48:34
she's
00:48:35
um a little bit younger than me and and
00:48:37
sort of a little bit lower level but
00:48:38
she's sort of coming through so she was
00:48:40
over there with me as well which was
00:48:41
really good but um I didn't have any
00:48:43
medical treatment I didn't have anything
00:48:45
so it was sort of like
00:48:47
I was like maybe there's something going
00:48:49
on with my body and so we were actually
00:48:51
really lucky because after that we were
00:48:52
traveling to the US to go and train with
00:48:54
Tom Walsh who has a place in the US
00:48:57
which he bases out of um and there there
00:49:00
was Tom Lauren Bruce who's a Hima
00:49:02
thrower and then their coach and our
00:49:06
physio so we share the same physio
00:49:08
um and she was here as well and so I was
00:49:11
like look I'll just get on the plane
00:49:12
I'll get over there and we'll just you
00:49:14
know we just try and work it out and so
00:49:16
so I got there and Tam's in my physio
00:49:20
um just kind of sent me down had a look
00:49:22
at my body and and there wasn't a
00:49:24
balance there was something going on
00:49:26
with my sacrum um what's the sacrum so
00:49:28
it's it's kind of like very lower back
00:49:31
um it's kind of like it's sort of like
00:49:32
you can feel like you've got your your
00:49:35
um your sit bone kind of at the bottom
00:49:37
of your and it's kind of like there's
00:49:38
two little bumps just above it you
00:49:40
didn't have any pain or anything no pain
00:49:42
no um it was just it was just jammed
00:49:44
um just from just from training um and I
00:49:46
hadn't seen it for a while and so no one
00:49:47
had really picked up on it
00:49:49
um and so she got there she got that
00:49:51
working again and she she's really good
00:49:54
she loves a good philosophical
00:49:56
discussion and and I I admitted to her
00:49:59
that you know I was I was very worried
00:50:01
about going to the Olympics and no
00:50:02
hiding and she sort of challenged me on
00:50:05
that and she was like you know what's
00:50:06
she was like what's the worst thing that
00:50:08
could happen going to the Olympics and I
00:50:09
was like no hiding
00:50:11
knowing that she was probably going to
00:50:13
prove me wrong
00:50:14
um but I was like well for me right now
00:50:16
I feel like not hiding me the worst and
00:50:17
she's like she's like going to the
00:50:20
Olympics and not trying your hardest
00:50:22
would be like the worst thing you can do
00:50:24
if you're not high like who cares if you
00:50:27
have actually like you know if you've
00:50:28
given it you're all you've done all the
00:50:30
prep you need to do and you know at the
00:50:33
end of the day like the result will just
00:50:34
it'll either happen or I won't but
00:50:36
that's that's not something that
00:50:40
that's your physio yeah so that's my
00:50:43
physio all right so you don't need a
00:50:45
sports psychologist you've got um you've
00:50:46
got like a two-in-one yeah pretty much I
00:50:48
yeah it's it's great like and that's
00:50:50
that's how much of it is how much of um
00:50:53
like what you do is mental
00:50:56
it's a lot of it's me too um I suppose
00:50:59
the idea if you're in like a flow State
00:51:00
you're not even thinking about what
00:51:01
you're doing are you just no and the
00:51:03
thing for us is like it's it's not like
00:51:06
it's not like running where you you
00:51:08
don't necessarily know what pace you're
00:51:10
on or I mean obviously you know you
00:51:12
could check your watch or something but
00:51:13
it's like for us like
00:51:14
we stand there our name gets announced
00:51:17
and we look at the bar and we go I'm
00:51:19
either going to clear that and I'm on to
00:51:21
the next round or I don't
00:51:23
like that's it and so it's kind of like
00:51:25
it's it's pretty like it can be pretty
00:51:28
intense at times and so if you're not in
00:51:30
there you know that positive mindset or
00:51:32
you know the mindset which is going to
00:51:34
enable you to do well then then you will
00:51:36
get kicked out the back and and so
00:51:38
that's something that that is something
00:51:41
that I have to deal with constantly
00:51:43
um but yeah how do you what have you got
00:51:45
any like techniques or tricks or tips
00:51:48
like how do you stay
00:51:50
um like mentally positive and focused I
00:51:52
just remind myself of the bigger picture
00:51:54
um I love competing and I love like the
00:51:56
singularity of like being in a
00:51:58
competition and nothing else matters but
00:51:59
at the same time like when things are
00:52:00
going bad I remind myself that
00:52:03
you know
00:52:05
I guess the thing is like if I know how
00:52:06
to do a competition or if I do badly
00:52:08
like I'm still alive and yeah my
00:52:12
appearances still they still love me and
00:52:14
and you know I still live in a country
00:52:16
where we have you know very little you
00:52:19
know war or or massive things going on
00:52:21
like like places like Ukraine which was
00:52:22
something that I think about a lot this
00:52:24
year and it's kind of like you know
00:52:26
we're still really lucky
00:52:28
um and so it just puts in perspective
00:52:29
for you yeah also like if you if you
00:52:31
know jump you're not going to be
00:52:32
required to do any interviews you're not
00:52:33
going to get any immediate time you go
00:52:35
under the radar like probably the worst
00:52:37
thing that could happen would be if you
00:52:38
jump and you yeah
00:52:40
the Bell ends on your testicles and you
00:52:42
hurt your nuts then you're going to be
00:52:44
memed and go viral yeah absolutely you
00:52:46
won't get a no jump and pale yourself
00:52:48
and then like everyone's laughing at you
00:52:50
so
00:52:52
um I think I read this in a I read this
00:52:54
in a book or sort of one of the all
00:52:55
black movies like Dan Carter or Richie
00:52:57
McCaw or something so they've got the
00:52:58
same sports psychologist called Gilbert
00:52:59
Anoka and uh he taught them A Thing
00:53:01
Called Red Red brain blue brain yeah and
00:53:04
um they all got have little techniques
00:53:06
of how to reset like um I think Richard
00:53:08
McCoy just [ __ ] shoelaces or touched
00:53:10
us touch the ground and yeah yeah yeah
00:53:12
that's the one have you got a thing like
00:53:14
that so if you do a no jump have you got
00:53:16
a way that you yeah so we call it um we
00:53:19
call it step back step up stepping
00:53:22
um and that's so you step back from the
00:53:24
situation
00:53:25
you assess it
00:53:26
you work out what you need to do to step
00:53:28
up and then you reset back in and then
00:53:31
you forget about all that other stuff
00:53:32
and you just go for it but one of the
00:53:34
ways that I used to step back so that's
00:53:36
sort of like the because that's the
00:53:37
hardest bit is trying to remove yourself
00:53:38
from that situation
00:53:40
um what I do is I actually just look at
00:53:41
what people wearing in the crowd
00:53:43
um so I'll be sitting there and I'll
00:53:44
just be like oh yeah that chick's got
00:53:46
like you know red pants on and there's a
00:53:48
blue hat and that guy looks like an
00:53:49
idiot and you know that's that's my way
00:53:51
of kind of like removing myself and then
00:53:54
I'll talk to my coach I'll work out what
00:53:56
we need to change I'll visualize it I'll
00:53:58
I'll visualize it in two ways I'll
00:54:00
visualize it from me and I'll visualize
00:54:02
it from me on the side looking at me
00:54:05
and then I step back and I don't worry
00:54:07
about any of it I'll just go for it
00:54:08
because how long is the gap between
00:54:10
jumps
00:54:11
um it can be a while sometimes 10
00:54:13
minutes 20 minutes yeah it can be 10
00:54:15
minutes sometimes so so
00:54:17
yeah yeah 10 minutes is probably about
00:54:19
the standard
00:54:20
um so yeah if you've if you've just like
00:54:22
destroyed yourself on a second attempt
00:54:24
and you've only got one left and you
00:54:26
don't know what you're doing it can be a
00:54:28
very long 10 minutes it's just it's a
00:54:31
strange sport I in the respect that um
00:54:33
like all your training has done
00:54:36
um in the corner of the school sports
00:54:37
field you and your coach and a couple of
00:54:39
others um but never any crowds always
00:54:42
silence and then here you are on these
00:54:44
World stages getting to jump and you're
00:54:46
hyping the crowd up like you want that
00:54:48
noise yeah yeah I mean and that's that's
00:54:51
the cool thing about competing is that
00:54:52
you can you can hone this this craft and
00:54:55
the skill and quite a controlled
00:54:58
environment and then go out and just
00:55:00
express it
00:55:01
so yeah that's something that now you
00:55:05
know this year having quite a few big
00:55:07
events and then leading on to the next
00:55:09
sort of few years with the World opening
00:55:11
up again it's it's something that's kind
00:55:12
of reinvigorated my kind of experience
00:55:15
of the sport as well because you know
00:55:17
you go to somewhere like Tokyo and we
00:55:19
weren't used to crowds so like it was
00:55:21
kind of like oh yeah like this kind of
00:55:23
just reminds me of a New Zealand
00:55:24
competition but oh yeah because there
00:55:26
was no one in the group yeah yeah right
00:55:27
you know but whereas now it's like if I
00:55:29
went back there yeah it was like oh it's
00:55:31
just like Nationals yeah it's strange
00:55:33
isn't it because you're in these sports
00:55:34
like tennis and uh Tennyson say golf for
00:55:37
example and they they that they need
00:55:41
absolute concentration to serve and to
00:55:43
and to tee off
00:55:45
um and any noise is off-putting but it's
00:55:46
like um I suppose with track and field
00:55:48
there's so much going on like there
00:55:50
could be people running around you
00:55:51
javelins flying around all sorts going
00:55:53
on but that's that's the great thing
00:55:55
about our sport is that like you bring
00:55:57
the noise and you know as a spectator
00:55:59
you can go there and you might not know
00:56:01
what was going on but like just just go
00:56:03
for it like here and just just get
00:56:05
amongst it whereas you go to a golf you
00:56:07
know I mean you go to some some golf
00:56:09
tournaments you have to wear a dress
00:56:10
code it's like it's crazy well yes
00:56:12
you're speaking of the golf thing so you
00:56:14
um you said you reset what was the reset
00:56:16
thing before step back step up step in
00:56:19
yeah and you said you you just look at
00:56:22
people in the crowd and think about what
00:56:24
they're wearing and stuff but at the
00:56:26
commonwealth games where you won Gold I
00:56:28
saw a footage of you like practicing
00:56:29
your golf swing Yeah by doing anything
00:56:31
where did that fit into that picture oh
00:56:33
that was just again like I said like if
00:56:37
you have 10 minutes between jumps you
00:56:39
can't be focused that whole time yeah
00:56:40
and that's something that I love about
00:56:41
our sport as well is as like I said at
00:56:44
school I was trying to get away for as
00:56:46
little as possible high jump is a lazy
00:56:48
event you do you know you do eight jumps
00:56:50
and you're out there for two two hours
00:56:52
so we yeah yeah you know I get to watch
00:56:55
all the all the you know all the track
00:56:57
events I get to cheer for all the the
00:56:59
kiwis are going past me and and that's
00:57:01
something that I that's cool I really
00:57:03
tend to well so yeah whatever I can do
00:57:06
to pass the time I'll I'll do but then
00:57:07
you know a couple minutes before the
00:57:09
jump I'll start focusing again and get
00:57:10
back into it yeah so so the Olympics you
00:57:12
finished here is that the best in New
00:57:13
Zealand has ever done in hijab
00:57:17
don't quote me on the female side of it
00:57:19
but it's definitely the best of males
00:57:20
done because we've only had as only the
00:57:22
second male to make the Olympics
00:57:25
um wow he didn't make the finals so
00:57:27
right yeah and that was that was the
00:57:28
thing for me was that first things first
00:57:30
I wanted to make a height because
00:57:31
obviously I was worried about no hiding
00:57:33
yeah yeah yeah yeah I did that and I was
00:57:35
like sweet pressure's off
00:57:37
um and then for me it was like if I made
00:57:38
the final like
00:57:39
I'm done like I don't I don't care what
00:57:41
happens like yeah that's so cool and
00:57:43
that was a real memorable one I what
00:57:45
happened with um gold and silver yeah
00:57:46
it's a joint gold situation yeah yeah so
00:57:49
so
00:57:50
um that was a crazy thing as well was I
00:57:52
was you know five minutes away from that
00:57:53
just watching it unfold and so
00:57:55
essentially
00:57:56
um what happens in high jump is his
00:57:58
account back system so if two people
00:58:02
clear the final height on the same
00:58:04
attempt so say like
00:58:07
230 me and Bob both cleared on our
00:58:11
second attempts and then we don't clear
00:58:12
the next height then what will happen is
00:58:14
that it will go to the height before
00:58:16
that and if I got that first attempt and
00:58:20
Bob got a second attempt then I won but
00:58:22
if we both got on first attempt then it
00:58:24
goes back to Total misses right a person
00:58:26
who's missed less Heights is the winner
00:58:29
and then if that is the same
00:58:32
then you'll go to something called jump
00:58:34
off and so what happens in jump off is
00:58:36
that they clear the final height or they
00:58:39
attempt at final height one more time
00:58:41
and then they go down two centimeters
00:58:43
they both get a jump at that down two
00:58:46
centimeters both get a jumper there and
00:58:48
down two centimeters until someone
00:58:49
clears and someone doesn't
00:58:51
but and that's always just been a given
00:58:53
like you know you just do that
00:58:55
Basham the Qatari and tanbury the
00:58:59
Italian were both they were both so
00:59:01
tired by the end of it like it'd been a
00:59:03
four-hour competition which was just
00:59:04
like absolutely like Menace neither of
00:59:07
them were looking like anywhere close to
00:59:09
clearing the last height so I was kind
00:59:10
of like it was going to come down to
00:59:12
someone jumping so they both cleared
00:59:13
237. it was going to come down to like
00:59:16
one of them scraping over like 233 or
00:59:18
something which was just gonna be like
00:59:20
you know you could tell that like
00:59:21
neither of them wanted that like 10
00:59:23
Berry before the comp he said too right
00:59:25
like I was like I was talking to him and
00:59:27
he just said like look I just want to
00:59:28
jump high today that's all I care about
00:59:30
doing so he'd done that and Basham has
00:59:33
got like this amazing Legacy of like all
00:59:35
these amazing jumps and he wasn't in
00:59:37
that shape but he had gone to you know
00:59:40
position moves in first place and double
00:59:41
best mates as well which is the that's
00:59:44
the thing that I
00:59:46
find is so fitting about it is that
00:59:48
these are two guys who
00:59:50
don't know each other from bioso they
00:59:52
you know they barely speak the same
00:59:53
language
00:59:55
um and so they come from completely
00:59:57
different you know cultural backgrounds
00:59:58
yeah they met because of high jump and
01:00:00
they're in this position where the
01:00:03
official said to them
01:00:04
you know you've got the option to do a
01:00:07
jump off and they went well like
01:00:11
do we have to yeah
01:00:13
I was like that was what they said they
01:00:15
were like well do we have to and he's
01:00:16
like well and this was great by the
01:00:18
officials part because like a lot of
01:00:19
officials are real like
01:00:21
now you have to whereas he like he knew
01:00:24
the rules and he was like you don't
01:00:25
actually have to and so they both look
01:00:28
at each other and they're like
01:00:29
and then they're like yep sweet and then
01:00:31
it's just like that's so cool yeah and
01:00:33
it was it was crazy because I was like
01:00:35
sitting there watching it and kind of
01:00:36
like being a fan of the sport it made
01:00:38
sense to me like because of the reasons
01:00:40
I've listed like because you know these
01:00:42
two completely different guys like they
01:00:43
both jump really high like they both
01:00:45
jumps high as each other and they
01:00:46
weren't going to jump higher so like for
01:00:48
me I was kind of just like oh yeah
01:00:50
that's cool and then I kind of got off
01:00:52
and then I got on my phone and it was
01:00:54
just like it was just like blowing up
01:00:57
and I was just I did not expect that
01:00:58
yeah epitomize what the Olympics is I
01:01:01
think the Olympics
01:01:03
it was super polarizing as well though
01:01:05
which I thought was
01:01:06
super fascinating in the respect that
01:01:09
they should have fought to the death
01:01:10
yeah 100 like I mean I I I know a lot of
01:01:13
people who who thought that but at the
01:01:15
same time I'm like look you guys are
01:01:17
talking about high jump like thank you
01:01:19
yeah
01:01:21
yeah okay so that was the um the the
01:01:25
Olympic Games in Tokyo and then um and
01:01:28
then we've got the commonwealth games
01:01:30
this year so after finishing 10th in
01:01:32
Tokyo and exceeding I suppose it's the
01:01:36
relief that you didn't know jump and
01:01:38
then exceeding all expectations that you
01:01:39
had on yourself and everyone else had on
01:01:41
you then do you start thinking they said
01:01:43
I want to win a [ __ ] medal yeah yeah
01:01:46
so the massive thing was after that
01:01:49
um so I obviously went down to
01:01:52
Christchurch in 2018 and the goal was to
01:01:54
get through Tokyo and see if I was
01:01:55
enjoying it and then Togo happened and
01:01:57
suddenly we're talking about two more
01:01:59
Olympic cycles and I was like whoa okay
01:02:00
like
01:02:02
sign me up like that sounds amazing like
01:02:04
I've had such a cool few years and I
01:02:05
really want to do it so so everything
01:02:07
then started gearing towards Paris
01:02:10
because because I I felt like I was in a
01:02:12
position where I could win a medal there
01:02:13
um and so this year was kind of like
01:02:16
let's take the opportunity to go
01:02:18
overseas and like just live on the road
01:02:20
because you know that's that's what you
01:02:22
have to do as an athlete um it's it's
01:02:25
kind of not really sustainable doing
01:02:26
like one big competition a year and then
01:02:28
just going back to New Zealand for like
01:02:29
you know 10 months to train like some
01:02:31
people will do it but I can't do that
01:02:33
like yeah I need other competitions and
01:02:35
stuff and so I was like look the world's
01:02:36
open just get over there and see what
01:02:39
it's like living over there and see what
01:02:40
you can learn um and so that was kind of
01:02:42
like the goal for this year was was to
01:02:44
do that and like I said put in
01:02:45
perspective
01:02:47
um we're working on a three-year plan
01:02:48
now and this is the first year of it so
01:02:50
yeah we had a couple calls we could talk
01:02:54
about but we I we can talk about a
01:02:56
couple of comps as well if you want yeah
01:02:58
well the one no other ones this year
01:03:00
like all right you know in terms of
01:03:01
commies and and indoors and
01:03:03
I think those like I wanted to go to
01:03:05
those meets and obviously perform but
01:03:07
yeah at the same time like I didn't
01:03:09
really have any expectations on them
01:03:11
because they weren't the goal yeah
01:03:13
because those are the ones you're
01:03:15
talking about like the average New
01:03:16
Zealander has no no clue what's going on
01:03:18
like you know what I mean like we know
01:03:19
about the um oh yeah we know about the
01:03:21
Olympics and the Commonwealth Games but
01:03:22
so the world indoors or whatever yeah so
01:03:24
there's like we this year
01:03:26
um we were in a rare position where we
01:03:28
had three major events um usually we
01:03:31
have one because we'll have like a world
01:03:33
Champs or an Olympics or a commonwealth
01:03:35
games and they all kind of like go like
01:03:36
that but because covert has pushed a lot
01:03:38
of stuff back
01:03:40
um this year we had a world indoors we
01:03:42
had a world outdoors and com games which
01:03:44
has never happened before how did you do
01:03:46
it those things the indoors and Outdoors
01:03:47
so and indoors I got bronze
01:03:51
um which was pretty unexpected because
01:03:53
I'd never done an indoor competition
01:03:54
before but at the same time I was it was
01:03:56
an awesome experience and well it was
01:03:58
part of my ignorance what's the
01:04:00
difference so indoors is like the
01:04:02
surface is different and so your timing
01:04:04
and your Rhythm changes it's also a
01:04:06
smaller track so that doesn't change
01:04:08
high jump at all but it means that for
01:04:10
the track runners it's only 200 meters
01:04:11
and it's banked
01:04:13
um all almost like a velodrome like a
01:04:15
mini velodrome yeah like a mini
01:04:16
velodrome um and the cool thing about it
01:04:18
is like
01:04:19
The Spectators are way more engaged
01:04:22
because they're right on you because of
01:04:24
the track I mean you know we we can
01:04:26
paint on like a football size field with
01:04:29
a track around the outside of it yeah if
01:04:31
you want to watch something that's on
01:04:32
the other side like you're not gonna
01:04:33
have a hope whereas like in an indoor
01:04:35
facility it's so much smaller that
01:04:37
everybody from the entire Stadium can
01:04:39
follow each event yeah which is really
01:04:41
cool and so it kind of feels like a lot
01:04:43
more like a sort of like a party more
01:04:44
intimate yeah um which which I think is
01:04:46
great for the sport it's something that
01:04:48
that really engages the fans so so yeah
01:04:50
we don't we don't do in New Zealand
01:04:51
because we don't that's kind of come out
01:04:53
of Europe because they obviously have
01:04:55
quite hard Winters and so they need
01:04:57
these these indoor facilities to train
01:04:58
whereas in New Zealand we kind of for
01:05:01
whatever reason we've never really gone
01:05:02
around to to making them we're sort of
01:05:04
just like oh it's fine you can go out
01:05:06
and in the snow
01:05:09
yeah yeah yeah exactly so it's sort of
01:05:13
the New Zealand yeah attitude to it um
01:05:15
but yeah so anyway winter we're winter
01:05:18
World indoors
01:05:19
um track was slightly different to what
01:05:20
I was used to and and it was very
01:05:22
different experience it was first time
01:05:23
in Europe for a number of years which
01:05:25
was really cool and
01:05:27
um came away with uh equal bronze yeah
01:05:29
and then
01:05:31
came back here and just prepped for
01:05:33
World Outdoors which was about two weeks
01:05:36
before com games so that was in Oregon
01:05:38
then I went over to do a few I did a
01:05:41
little bit of diamond League stuff here
01:05:42
and there as well which was our sort of
01:05:44
professional circuit
01:05:45
um which again most people wouldn't even
01:05:47
probably know what it is but it's I mean
01:05:49
we yeah we we hear about Diamond League
01:05:51
when Valerie Adams is throwing yeah
01:05:53
you're here winning at a diamond league
01:05:54
but no one's watching it no one knows no
01:05:56
no I mean that's the sad thing about the
01:05:58
sport unfortunately is those things are
01:06:00
pretty unwatchable as well even if you
01:06:01
wanted to watch them
01:06:03
right they're just so hard to find um
01:06:06
and yeah so
01:06:08
so yeah and then and then kind of winter
01:06:10
World Champs
01:06:11
um didn't jump very well
01:06:13
um I didn't even make the final
01:06:16
but thankfully two weeks later I had a
01:06:18
another event which people sort of knew
01:06:20
a little bit more about in the com games
01:06:21
and so I was able to redeem myself there
01:06:23
so going into the Commonwealth Games we
01:06:25
were you were you feeling confident were
01:06:27
you feeling like you were a middle
01:06:28
chance you're a new coach yeah yeah we'd
01:06:31
kind of we talked about it um earlier in
01:06:33
the year and for us it was kind of like
01:06:35
where do we want to Peak and
01:06:38
I kind of thought that we could hold a
01:06:40
peek from wheelchamps all the way
01:06:41
through and I think we probably still
01:06:42
could but because there was a couple of
01:06:44
things that happened earlier in the year
01:06:46
which pushed my preparation out a little
01:06:49
bit um I got covered and then had quite
01:06:51
a sort of a long recovery after that and
01:06:53
then I wanted to go overseas and my
01:06:55
coach was supposed to come with me and
01:06:56
then he couldn't because he got coven so
01:06:58
it was there was sort of a little bit of
01:06:59
a muck around with that but um it meant
01:07:01
that I actually got to wheelchamps and I
01:07:04
I said to Terry afterwards I was like I
01:07:06
feel like I'm two weeks away from being
01:07:08
ready and thankfully com games was two
01:07:10
weeks later
01:07:12
um and yeah I knew that
01:07:14
I knew that I was good for a medal
01:07:17
um
01:07:18
but you still need a lot to go right
01:07:20
though don't you still need a lot today
01:07:22
in the back of your mind even though you
01:07:23
knew you were right for the middle was
01:07:24
this still that sort of like like niggly
01:07:26
fear of no jumping oh 100 I mean I
01:07:31
I still every time I go to a big
01:07:32
competition and it's it's getting less
01:07:34
now that I do more but comps but like
01:07:36
I'm just like what happens if I forget
01:07:37
how to jump like am I gonna remember is
01:07:40
that like a dream you have sometimes you
01:07:42
wake up in the night and oh all the time
01:07:44
like every every time I do a big
01:07:45
competition I there is part of me that
01:07:48
goes like
01:07:49
I don't know if I'm even gonna be able
01:07:51
to take off today because sometimes in
01:07:54
training there are days where you like
01:07:55
that um and so it's kind of like yeah
01:07:58
every time I go out there it's like oh
01:07:59
you look so cool and relaxed and stuff
01:08:02
and it's like most of the time I'm
01:08:03
actually just like
01:08:05
I'm so nervous and just shooting myself
01:08:07
but yeah it usually goes right which is
01:08:09
good yeah I don't know it went very
01:08:12
right um so who was there with you you
01:08:13
your coach was here obviously what about
01:08:15
your parents your siblings yeah so my my
01:08:18
parents came over
01:08:19
um and and my girlfriend's Grandad of
01:08:22
all people he was actually in Europe um
01:08:24
at the time and so he came over and
01:08:25
watched as well which is cool oh that's
01:08:27
lovely yeah yeah so he was sort of like
01:08:29
oh I'm in France and I was like oh you
01:08:32
want to come to Birmingham and he's like
01:08:33
oh yeah where is it when is it like I'll
01:08:36
come and so you just like turned up
01:08:38
which was sick oh that's amazing how
01:08:40
long have you and your girlfriend been
01:08:41
together
01:08:42
um about a year and a half now right
01:08:43
right and you said she's into Athletics
01:08:45
not not quite at that com games Olympic
01:08:47
Games level yet but what what does she
01:08:48
do um so she's a hip Catholic which
01:08:50
which is kind of like how many events is
01:08:52
there so it's seven right yeah it's what
01:08:54
you do if you're um not good at one
01:08:56
event you're gonna have to do all of
01:08:57
them
01:08:59
are like crazy gnarly honestly like it's
01:09:02
the marathon of field events and like of
01:09:04
parabens so yeah it's it's pretty
01:09:06
intense but it means she does a lot of
01:09:08
training and I'm lucky that she pushes
01:09:10
me in training as well which is cool
01:09:11
yeah how did you guys make it just
01:09:12
through sport yeah well we actually
01:09:14
trained in the same um same Squad
01:09:15
together
01:09:16
um the old don't screw the crew didn't
01:09:18
apply there
01:09:21
um yeah so we met through then and then
01:09:23
um yeah now we're just happily together
01:09:25
which is cool yeah amazing amazing does
01:09:27
she like when you're having those
01:09:29
moments where it's a couple of days
01:09:31
before a company position you're
01:09:32
freaking out is she the person that
01:09:33
you're ring that can sort of talk you
01:09:34
down and remind you that you've done the
01:09:37
work and yeah and it's cool because like
01:09:39
she
01:09:40
she understands as well from like a you
01:09:43
know from a certain level and um and I
01:09:47
think as well like she
01:09:50
it's like after after Tokyo like her and
01:09:52
a bunch of um our mates were kind of
01:09:54
like just saying like they're like Amish
01:09:56
we're like we're so glad that you like
01:09:58
you did well because otherwise you would
01:10:00
have been so grumpy you know it's like
01:10:02
that's that's kind of where they're at
01:10:04
with it it's like they they want me to
01:10:05
do well because I want to do well but
01:10:07
they kind of don't really mind yeah so
01:10:09
what do they mean exactly so so if you
01:10:12
um if you had a complete Shadow at the
01:10:13
Commonwealth Games how long would you be
01:10:15
grumpy for before you can you know draw
01:10:17
a line on the scene and move on I would
01:10:19
claim that I would I would wouldn't be
01:10:20
grumpy for very long but I think I think
01:10:22
naturally as an athlete
01:10:24
um you'll be upset for sure 100 like I
01:10:27
mean you know it's a lot of work that
01:10:28
goes into it exactly you know you don't
01:10:30
want to spend all those hours doing the
01:10:31
training and then and then to not happen
01:10:32
yeah I mean look that's the thing though
01:10:34
that does happen I mean you know there
01:10:37
are there are a lot of times I have
01:10:38
failed there's there's like I said
01:10:40
there's a number of mates there that
01:10:41
I've now hided and we've kind of planned
01:10:43
for things and I've never really
01:10:44
eventuated but
01:10:46
um maybe I deal with them
01:10:48
in my mind quite well but from an
01:10:50
outside view maybe not so much but don't
01:10:53
talk to them exactly like oh watch out
01:10:55
he's coming
01:10:57
um you want to don't talk about the
01:10:58
Commodore again yeah yeah
01:11:00
um and did your girlfriend get jealous
01:11:01
of your Bromance with Sam Tanner ah um
01:11:04
Sam I follow you you both on Instagram
01:11:06
and um God you guys you guys were
01:11:09
inseparable of the Commonwealth Games
01:11:11
well it was she's super lucky so um my
01:11:14
girlfriend actually knows Sammy really
01:11:15
well so um it's the same 10 by the 1500
01:11:17
meter where did he finish he had a hell
01:11:19
of a run at the Commonwealth Games
01:11:20
didn't meddle but he was there so he
01:11:22
came sixth um happiest sixth place
01:11:24
getter ever the crazy thing is so like
01:11:26
he has run he'd run 334 going into that
01:11:29
and then he ran 331
01:11:32
in the final so three second PB which is
01:11:34
unreal and high in 1500 meters like it's
01:11:37
an insane Pace it's ridiculous so that's
01:11:40
that that meat I'm coming Sixth and
01:11:43
running 331 that's like one of the most
01:11:44
stacked races ever yeah and to have that
01:11:46
happen in the com games is like it's
01:11:48
just unreal so yeah so it was really
01:11:49
cool like um
01:11:51
just him being there and he we actually
01:11:53
traveled a lot together um that year we
01:11:54
just happened to be doing a lot of the
01:11:55
same comps so so we've known each other
01:11:57
for a while
01:11:58
um we've got to know each other quite
01:12:00
well this year yeah but I knew him
01:12:01
through you know through Tokyo and stuff
01:12:03
he's a bit younger than me so I sort of
01:12:05
feel like he's dead sometimes yeah yeah
01:12:08
he's like the young excitable child give
01:12:12
him a call see if she's gone
01:12:14
foreign
01:12:21
good timing Sam Turner g'day what are
01:12:24
you up to oh good I'm just I'm glad I
01:12:26
assumed the right person there I'm just
01:12:28
sitting at the top of the mountain with
01:12:29
my wife hey oh that's nice
01:12:31
it's hard life isn't it geez um Hamish
01:12:34
is getting very very jealous uh missing
01:12:36
out he would love to be sitting on the
01:12:38
top of the mountain watching the sunset
01:12:39
with you well mainly maybe with his wife
01:12:41
but I don't know about him with my wife
01:12:44
yeah
01:12:46
how are you saying we're just talking
01:12:49
about um I just brought up how you guys
01:12:51
seemed Inseparable at the Commonwealth
01:12:52
Games
01:12:53
yeah no I'm good uh yes we were a little
01:12:57
bit weren't we how much did you tell
01:12:58
them um about that thing though oh now
01:13:01
was I supposed to
01:13:03
oh maybe not for for the podcast yeah
01:13:07
you have to now Melissa and Maddie might
01:13:10
get a bit gutted with that one
01:13:13
[Music]
01:13:17
's that one bro what about that other
01:13:19
one that we were talking about oh the
01:13:21
other one
01:13:23
all right okay oh this is fake news now
01:13:29
you can uh
01:13:31
some
01:13:34
are you there
01:13:36
oh yeah so there you did yeah yeah your
01:13:39
phone just cut out he's like oh sorry
01:13:41
all right all right driving into a
01:13:43
tunnel all right I see you see me
01:13:45
all right see you later bye
01:13:48
see any stories here when I was he just
01:13:50
was he just pulling my leg no he was
01:13:52
just pulling your leg yeah um so who did
01:13:54
you run with over there did you have a
01:13:55
roommate no so I didn't but um we were
01:13:58
kind of an apartment with uh Tom so Tom
01:14:01
Walsh
01:14:02
Jordy Beamish who's a 5k Runner he's a
01:14:06
kiwi but he's based in um the states so
01:14:08
yeah two guys I get along with really
01:14:09
well which is nice yeah that's cool yeah
01:14:11
the um the stuff that you shared on
01:14:13
Instagram actually both you and the same
01:14:14
the the New Zealand like games Village
01:14:16
area looked amazing I think that was
01:14:18
something that like
01:14:20
really made the game's experience for me
01:14:22
was like how well the New Zealand team
01:14:24
and New Zealand Olympic Committee um
01:14:26
really like made us feel like we were at
01:14:29
home so they were actually really lucky
01:14:31
they they knew somebody who was on the
01:14:33
board of the each person Golf Club so we
01:14:35
were staying at the Birmingham
01:14:37
University which is like 200 meters away
01:14:39
from the golf club and they they knew
01:14:41
someone there and so they got onto them
01:14:43
real early and were like look
01:14:44
you know the com games was here in a few
01:14:46
years like can we can we use the golf
01:14:48
club as like a
01:14:49
um so so we literally had to just wander
01:14:53
up the road and we were right there I
01:14:54
mean the Aussies and even the Brits like
01:14:56
they didn't have something like that
01:14:58
they had to go like 20 minutes into town
01:15:00
and they just had like a couple of tents
01:15:02
set up in the middle of you know the the
01:15:04
game sort of Village
01:15:06
um but yeah we were able to go there and
01:15:08
they had like heaps of kiwi food and
01:15:10
like drinks and just just everything
01:15:12
that kind of made us just feel like like
01:15:14
we're at home and and you know
01:15:15
Spectators and parents and media and
01:15:17
stuff they all kind of congregated there
01:15:20
um whenever they were a big big events
01:15:21
happening so yeah that's so cool yeah it
01:15:23
was awesome and like the great thing was
01:15:25
we were able to go out in the golf
01:15:26
course as well and had a few balls which
01:15:28
was nice do you go all right
01:15:31
I'm a bit of a hack yeah yeah I could
01:15:33
tell from the swing that you were doing
01:15:34
while you're waiting for your jump no no
01:15:37
I love golf like it's it's um it's a
01:15:40
massive part of my downtime like I
01:15:42
played
01:15:43
probably too much to be honest but um
01:15:45
but no I really enjoy it so that's cool
01:15:46
yeah that's cool what else what else do
01:15:48
you do outside of jumping um I'm doing a
01:15:49
little study at the moment
01:15:51
um so I'm doing uh I'm doing like a
01:15:53
diploma in Psychology right just to kind
01:15:55
of keep the brain ticking over
01:15:56
um and then I do sort of a little bit of
01:15:57
speaking through the Olympic Committee
01:15:59
um at primary schools and stuff just to
01:16:01
share the Olympic values and and kind of
01:16:03
share the love as well so that's that's
01:16:04
cool
01:16:05
um how do you find the how do you find
01:16:07
the diploma in Psychology I I've thought
01:16:09
about doing some study like that I'd
01:16:10
love to do that it's a grind day like
01:16:13
honestly is that actually yeah I like
01:16:14
it's like I love the content like it's
01:16:16
it's not the contents problem it's like
01:16:18
it's me like just
01:16:20
I took it on thinking that I had the
01:16:22
time but I think like the amount of like
01:16:25
mental energy invested into my sport
01:16:27
nowadays like now that I'm you know
01:16:29
traveling and kind of doing it full time
01:16:30
it's just like the last thing I want to
01:16:33
do at the end of the day is like pick up
01:16:34
the book say but once I do and like I
01:16:36
get into a concert I was like I'm like
01:16:37
oh why don't I do this before like the
01:16:39
assignment is doing an hour yeah but
01:16:41
what um there's no shame I'm pulling out
01:16:43
of something though I think if you if
01:16:45
you sign up to something and it turns
01:16:46
out it's not right for you I think it's
01:16:48
quite empowering in some ways to go you
01:16:49
know what this isn't right for me yes I
01:16:51
actually I did that this year um at the
01:16:54
start of semester I was on I did two
01:16:55
papers um and I pulled out of one of
01:16:57
them when I was overseas I just I just
01:17:00
couldn't do it and I felt so guilty at
01:17:01
the time because I was like oh you know
01:17:03
like I've never really done that before
01:17:04
but like once I did it and once I
01:17:06
realized that like it was actually all
01:17:08
good like I was just like oh I'm so glad
01:17:10
I did that yeah yeah I mean you do feel
01:17:12
guilty or even like almost a little bit
01:17:13
of shame I guess like you're a failure
01:17:15
or something but um there's something
01:17:16
quite empowering and doing it yeah 100
01:17:18
yeah you've got to own those on those
01:17:20
mistakes and just just just build from
01:17:22
them yeah and um and generally how's
01:17:24
your mental health been like obviously
01:17:26
there's the anxiety and stress that
01:17:27
comes with um high pressure Sport and
01:17:29
we've talked about this before like just
01:17:31
the stressing out about no jumping but
01:17:33
um outside of that mostly good yeah
01:17:35
mostly good yeah I think it's one of
01:17:36
those things that um I'm very lucky I've
01:17:39
always had people around me who have
01:17:42
really like supported me to just be open
01:17:46
um and I think that that's something
01:17:47
that is really really powerful
01:17:50
um I always think that you know it's
01:17:52
you're not weak to speak out you're
01:17:53
actually really strong yeah that's
01:17:56
that's something that is very admirable
01:17:57
and something that that I would you know
01:18:00
I encourage all my mates to you know
01:18:03
have those chats and because you make it
01:18:05
makes you feel so good so much better if
01:18:07
there's something sort of nagging on
01:18:08
your mind and oh 100 it's just like you
01:18:10
know if you can if you can actually just
01:18:11
chat someone and I think for me like
01:18:14
my experiences with with you know
01:18:17
feeling down and all the rest of it you
01:18:18
always just feel so lonely
01:18:20
um and then once you actually chat to
01:18:21
someone about it you realize that that
01:18:23
you know
01:18:25
there are there are other people who who
01:18:27
could be going through some other things
01:18:28
and if you can go through those things
01:18:30
together then it actually makes a makes
01:18:31
a massive difference so yeah where did
01:18:33
that come from from you is that just the
01:18:35
way you were raised with your parents to
01:18:37
be like just open and not afraid to show
01:18:39
some vulnerability yeah I think so like
01:18:41
um like I've always known from a very
01:18:43
young age that like my mum
01:18:45
um you know my mum has had depression
01:18:48
pretty much her whole life and that was
01:18:50
just something that was really
01:18:50
normalized for us like you know she she
01:18:53
was just like look like you know this is
01:18:54
this is how it is like I mean
01:18:56
where our my family has
01:18:59
got uh you know a history of mental
01:19:01
health and and and that's something that
01:19:03
I don't think we really Define ourselves
01:19:06
um we just kind of we kind of deal with
01:19:08
it and just and just you know have a
01:19:10
have an amazing support team around us
01:19:12
to to kind of work through that so yeah
01:19:14
I think I think that's the thing like I
01:19:16
know that
01:19:17
you know
01:19:18
it's it's not if those days happen it's
01:19:20
when those days happen yeah um I know
01:19:22
that there's people I can pick up the
01:19:23
phone to chat to which which just makes
01:19:25
a massive difference yeah it's cool yeah
01:19:27
um yeah how bad is it for your mum I
01:19:29
just have periods where she just doesn't
01:19:30
want to get out of the bed no no it's
01:19:32
not like and it's manage it quite well
01:19:34
it's probably like I mean like obviously
01:19:37
I don't want to like you know speak for
01:19:38
my mum or anything but it's like one of
01:19:39
those things that like she she deals she
01:19:43
deals with it so well um you know she's
01:19:45
she's been getting help for a while and
01:19:46
and you know she never really let it
01:19:48
impact the way that she brought us up or
01:19:50
anything so I think that was something
01:19:51
that you know that that was what I found
01:19:53
really inspiring was that you know there
01:19:55
was all the stuff happening in the
01:19:56
background which I didn't really know
01:19:57
was happening
01:19:58
um until you know a few years later when
01:20:00
you know now I I talk to my mum about
01:20:02
those stuff that stuff a lot more and
01:20:04
kind of realized like you know the
01:20:05
extent to it so it's it's just super
01:20:07
awesome she just sort of Shield it from
01:20:08
you guys yeah yeah like she she she had
01:20:11
her support near work
01:20:13
um and you know we weren't at an age
01:20:14
where where we could probably be a part
01:20:16
of that
01:20:17
um and and so you know she was focused
01:20:19
on on the good and the bringing us up
01:20:21
with the with the you know the morals
01:20:23
and the values that that she wanted us
01:20:25
to kind of portray in our lives and and
01:20:28
then there became a time when when that
01:20:30
became more of a two-way street yeah so
01:20:33
I think that's really cool is I know
01:20:35
that
01:20:36
you know
01:20:37
they'll pick up the phone and talk to me
01:20:39
and I'm doing the same so yeah that's
01:20:41
great yeah it's good to have those
01:20:43
conversations so I'm I'm older than you
01:20:45
and um it was like we were just you'd
01:20:48
never you'd always just be as um tough
01:20:51
as what you could and as close as what
01:20:53
you could yeah especially going to a
01:20:54
school like Palmer stuff boys high
01:20:55
school because um if you show any sort
01:20:57
of vulnerability it could be weaponized
01:21:00
against you yeah I'm saying so I've done
01:21:02
that at school as well did you it was
01:21:03
like I I like know of people who like
01:21:08
had things happening in their lives
01:21:10
which they just didn't tell anyone until
01:21:12
they left school like like there was one
01:21:14
point where there was like a couple of
01:21:15
people who
01:21:16
it wasn't in my year it was a couple
01:21:18
years above me but like essentially they
01:21:19
like left school and they came out as um
01:21:23
has been homosexual pretty much straight
01:21:25
away and like
01:21:26
and they pretty much said they were like
01:21:28
we didn't feel comfortable doing that at
01:21:29
school and it was like for me I was just
01:21:31
like man like
01:21:33
like
01:21:35
I understand where you're coming from
01:21:36
like but I reckon that's just so sad and
01:21:38
and I think that that culture has
01:21:40
changed a lot since since I left but oh
01:21:42
probably seismically I'd say like over
01:21:44
the last 10 years but yeah when I went
01:21:46
to school like um yeah this is late 80s
01:21:48
early 90s it was like every everyone was
01:21:52
called a homophobic slur every day yeah
01:21:54
everyone was a [ __ ] [ __ ] or a [ __ ]
01:21:56
homo yeah which was just like so if you
01:21:58
and I look back now and I think um okay
01:22:01
you know a thousand boys at the school
01:22:03
you'd assume maybe 100 150 200 of them
01:22:06
were gay yeah imagine how awful that is
01:22:08
yeah and it's so sad like a lot of those
01:22:09
people probably have never come out
01:22:10
because of that like and I think that
01:22:13
that's you know like and that's I think
01:22:15
also like from a sporting perspective
01:22:17
the way I look at it is if there's
01:22:19
anything that's like dragging me down
01:22:22
um and is any of those sort of things
01:22:23
nagging me at the back of my mind and I
01:22:25
can't be at peace with all of those then
01:22:27
when the pressure comes on and those big
01:22:29
you know those big jumps and those big
01:22:31
moments not just in athletics but you
01:22:33
know in anything in your life like they
01:22:34
will be be exposed and they will bring
01:22:36
you down yeah so you kind of have to
01:22:38
know that
01:22:39
those rocks have been have been you know
01:22:41
taken care of and yeah you can't
01:22:43
function as a human if
01:22:45
if you're trying to carry around all
01:22:46
this stuff which actually you know there
01:22:49
are people in your life will be happy to
01:22:51
you know take it for a while while you
01:22:53
do what you need to do yeah that's
01:22:55
absolutely true that's one thing that I
01:22:57
struggle with because I think um I get I
01:22:59
get validation from uh like within my
01:23:01
family for being the being the fixer or
01:23:03
being the go-to guy being the solution
01:23:05
guy yeah yeah
01:23:06
um so I do find it hard to sit back and
01:23:08
say um you know I'm not doing great at
01:23:10
the moment here you go which is which is
01:23:11
dumb it's completely dumb because no
01:23:13
one's yeah no one's no one's Ironclad
01:23:16
are they no absolutely not like I think
01:23:18
yeah
01:23:20
the more we just talk about it and the
01:23:22
more we realize that everyone is just
01:23:24
going through all the same stuff yes
01:23:26
that's pretty special oh man that's one
01:23:27
of the takeaways I've got from doing
01:23:29
this podcast this year everyone is
01:23:30
carrying around a bag of [ __ ] it's just
01:23:32
how big that is yeah absolutely and like
01:23:36
you know that's the same with everyone
01:23:37
on tour I mean all the all the great
01:23:39
athletes that I know it's it's like it's
01:23:42
almost like they're the ones who've been
01:23:44
able to deal with it it's not like the
01:23:45
other ones who don't have it it's like
01:23:47
everyone's got it and what makes you a
01:23:50
great athlete or a great person or a
01:23:51
great human is is actually working on
01:23:53
ways and how you can how you can like
01:23:55
just live with that yeah and be okay
01:23:57
with it have you
01:23:58
um I mean this is years away so you
01:24:00
probably haven't even thought about
01:24:01
about this yet but um lucky I I had um I
01:24:05
recorded a conversation with um Joseph
01:24:06
Sullivan the other day who was uh he won
01:24:08
a gold medal in rowing in 2012 uh then
01:24:10
it became a firefighter and he's won a
01:24:12
couple of America's cups since then
01:24:14
um but he kind of got shafted after 2012
01:24:17
and that's why I didn't make it back to
01:24:18
the Olympics in 2016 and sort of found
01:24:20
to where I suppose post career
01:24:22
depression for a bit like are you
01:24:23
worried about that like you know the
01:24:25
when the point comes where you're no
01:24:26
longer hammers the high jumper yeah I
01:24:28
think I think uh massively like I think
01:24:30
that
01:24:32
um
01:24:33
like your your image and who you are as
01:24:35
a person
01:24:37
um is
01:24:37
is very much attached to who you are as
01:24:40
an athlete a lot of the time and that's
01:24:42
something I've actually had to deal with
01:24:43
because being a uni student and having
01:24:45
all these other things on the Go at once
01:24:46
when I actually fully committed I was
01:24:48
like I don't know if I want to just be
01:24:49
that one person
01:24:51
um and so I've actually had to take
01:24:52
quite a few years to actually get around
01:24:54
to
01:24:55
like this is the first year I've
01:24:57
actually like if someone says like what
01:24:58
do you do like high jump will be what I
01:25:00
tell like even even you know going into
01:25:03
the Olympics and and sort of directly
01:25:04
after the Olympics it was like oh you
01:25:06
know like I kind of do a bit of study
01:25:07
and I and I do a bit of sport as well it
01:25:09
was like you know I'm actually okay with
01:25:11
owning that image now but
01:25:13
um yeah it's going to be an interesting
01:25:15
one like I think yeah
01:25:17
obviously
01:25:18
things have changed a little bit
01:25:20
um since 2012 like I think that the the
01:25:23
well-being of athletes is starting to to
01:25:25
get looked after quite a lot better but
01:25:28
at the same time once you go on it's
01:25:29
like that's a massive hole in your life
01:25:31
to fill
01:25:32
yeah completely that's completely
01:25:35
especially
01:25:36
I'm sorry I'm sorry for breaking it up
01:25:39
you still got two more Olympics I'm
01:25:40
gonna have to be awakened Warrior
01:25:42
big runs every day oh just everything I
01:25:45
think for validation one around with the
01:25:46
middle on yeah yeah they go to like
01:25:48
School athletics mates with the middle
01:25:49
back in my day yeah yeah well yeah I
01:25:52
mean I suppose in some ways like it's
01:25:54
even harder the more successful you are
01:25:56
because you've gone from the like the
01:25:58
heights of you know being on the top of
01:26:00
a Podium yeah um so from that level of
01:26:02
success here but I'm sure you'll be fine
01:26:04
yeah and I think it's probably got a lot
01:26:05
going on yeah well that's that's the
01:26:07
thing it's like if you if you're going
01:26:09
to Define Yourself by who you are as an
01:26:11
athlete rather than who you are as a
01:26:12
person and I Define myself a lot more by
01:26:14
who I am as a person that's who I think
01:26:16
of when I think of who I am if you are
01:26:18
very athlete focused which a lot of
01:26:20
athletes are and you know
01:26:22
some people would argue you have to be
01:26:23
yeah
01:26:24
um maybe I'm not committed enough I
01:26:26
don't know but it's like if you're more
01:26:28
focused on that side then you'll
01:26:29
actually probably just find the thing
01:26:30
that you're you know you want to be
01:26:32
interested in and kind of develop
01:26:34
through there whereas if you if you've
01:26:36
only ever known who you are as an
01:26:38
athlete you know from a very young age
01:26:39
you've always just played sport
01:26:41
yeah it's pretty confronting are you
01:26:43
yeah absolutely speaking of that metal
01:26:45
where where is it is that your parents
01:26:47
house or it's in Christchurch yeah
01:26:49
whereabouts in Christchurch it's in my
01:26:51
flat and I do know where it is
01:26:54
um please tell me it's not in a draw
01:26:56
it's somewhere visible right well see
01:26:58
that's that's what so at the moment
01:27:00
um I've got hidden
01:27:02
not in a is it an address the thing is
01:27:04
so this is the thing like so I've got my
01:27:06
world indoors metal hung up like but I'm
01:27:09
kind of like
01:27:10
I don't know like if it got stolen for
01:27:13
example like I'd be gutted you know that
01:27:15
you can't replace them can you see I
01:27:17
don't think you replaced them and so
01:27:18
it's kind of like one of those things
01:27:19
like
01:27:20
I almost don't know if I wanna
01:27:22
display as like as much as I want to
01:27:24
like I've got this I've got this thing
01:27:26
that hang up I've got the number I've
01:27:27
got it you know that's that's all yeah
01:27:29
that's all done and that's that's all
01:27:30
very visible but the middle itself like
01:27:32
I think that it just means so much to me
01:27:34
that like if I was to lose that like
01:27:37
like I've never really been attached to
01:27:39
meals before or anything but it's like
01:27:40
that one middle if I lost that man I
01:27:43
just I'd be good today well I've heard
01:27:45
about I've heard about Lotto winners
01:27:48
that um that you know win Lotto and
01:27:50
they're so stressed out about what to do
01:27:51
to the ticket they tape it to their body
01:27:53
until they can go and catch it in why
01:27:55
don't you just wear the middle yeah I'll
01:27:57
just wear it around I'm sure everyone
01:27:59
would allowed there no one will think
01:28:01
you're a dick here he comes it was eight
01:28:04
years ago man there's one middle I don't
01:28:07
know that's cool yeah it's really
01:28:08
actually really nice to really nice to
01:28:10
hear that it does mean that much to you
01:28:12
that's really cool yeah oh look what
01:28:15
I'll do I'll hide it until I win an
01:28:16
Olympic medal and then I'll display the
01:28:18
comms middle and hide the elements so
01:28:20
what are you saying to any Burgers
01:28:21
listening to this is Olympic medal they
01:28:24
can steal the comments yeah yeah I have
01:28:25
it don't worry about it it would be a
01:28:27
weird it would be a [ __ ] thing to
01:28:28
steal it means nothing to nobody right
01:28:30
and it's not actually worth yeah oh
01:28:32
there's no value hey there'd be someone
01:28:35
out there who would just you know do
01:28:37
that just because it was there
01:28:39
I mean yeah I I don't understand that I
01:28:43
don't understand that hey it's been
01:28:44
wonderful sitting down with you today
01:28:45
thanks for having me on yeah man I
01:28:47
really really appreciate your time and
01:28:49
um yeah it's as I said before like you
01:28:52
make high jump fun to watch like you
01:28:54
make it look graceful and easy and I
01:28:55
think and it's it's a sport that
01:28:58
if you can watch a sport on TV that you
01:29:00
don't know like whether it's golf or
01:29:02
tennis or high jump whatever and it
01:29:04
looks easy I think that's because the
01:29:06
people that are doing it are real good
01:29:08
yeah well hopefully lots of people think
01:29:10
it's easy and come along
01:29:12
yeah yeah so we have a few more people
01:29:15
at Nationals or something oh that's
01:29:16
great hey um they were best of luck with
01:29:18
what's next hopefully um hopefully
01:29:20
onwards and upwards at the uh the next
01:29:21
Olympic Games in Paris
01:29:23
um and good luck with the psychology
01:29:24
papers as well thank you I'll need it
