World junior and youth shot put champion Jacko Gill showed he has more than one string to an increasingly impressive bow by turning his attention to the discus yesterday - with a further sensational result.
Gill, still aged 16, smashed the New Zealand under-18 discus record by more than two metres when he threw 62.05m at a meeting at the Millennium Stadium on Auckland's North Shore. That would have been good enough for second place at the recent world youth championships in Lille, France, where Gill won the shot put title with a world's best performance. The previous New Zealand under 18 discus record of 59.82m was set 21 years ago by Chris Mene.
Gill has trained only once for the discus over the last 12 months and his only other competitive throw was in New Caledonia early this year when he hit 59.12m. Even more amazingly, Gill's record throw came after two heavy weight training sessions the previous day - where he improved his bench press to 181 kg (about 400lbs).
His aims for the rest of this year are to improve his world record in the under-18 shot to more than 25 metres, to break the world junior (under-20) shot record and to consolidate his selection prospects for next year's London Olympics. Defending world shot put champion Christian Cantwell has described Gill's throwing as "unreal" but believes success at the senior level is not guaranteed.
The Takapuna-based athlete has rightly been lauded as one of the world's finest teenage athletics talents and the gifted thrower has even talked about aiming for a medal at next year's Olympic Games. Gill was not allowed to compete at the world athletics championships currently taking place in Korea because of age restrictions in the throwing events. Cantwell, who will begin the defence of his title during qualification on Thursday, has watched Gill throw on YouTube and has been impressed.