KEY POINTS:
North Shore teenager Frazer Wickes has the potential to become New Zealand's best 400 metre runner, says his coach Russ Hoggard.
Hoggard should know. He's trained hundreds of the country's best and, at 78, remains heavily involved with the elite youth group at the successful Bay Cougars club.
Wickes startled his coach, club members, his family and himself with a record-breaking 47.79s run to blitz the field in the final of the 400m at the national secondary schools championships at Wanganui this month, beating the 33-year-old mark set by Richard Goldstone by 1.21s.
It also beats the 47.86s qualifying time for the IAAF world junior championships in Bydgoszcz in Poland next July but Wickes, just 15, won't be going because he's too young, would face runners aged up to 19 and because his coach and family want him to do things properly and develop at the right rate rather than be thrown in at the deep end.
"He's as good as any athlete I've ever handled," Hoggard said of the Westlake Boys High student who has been running since he was 5 and in the Cougars elite group for the past three years.
"He got serious about two years ago and gave up soccer which he was quite good at," said Wickes' father, Craig, who was a sprinter with best times of 10.83s for the 100m and 23s flat for the 200m. Craig Wickes became the first schoolboy All Black when he went on as a replacement against Fiji in Auckland in 1980.
Frazer's best 100m time is 11.17s but Hoggard believes he'll beat his father's time at some point this season. His best 200m is already under Craig's best, 22.22s, also the Bay Cougars club open record which Frazer set in open competition at Mt Smart in March.
Frazer said he'd been training hard ahead of the Wanganui meet and was expecting to go "low 48, but not that fast". Now his focus is firmly on the nationals in March. If that goes well there are the world youth champs in Italy in 2009.
He's training four days a week, practising starts and speed work. "I like training, I'm still learning and hopefully improving," Wickes said.
His best time for 400m last year was 50s.
He ran a hand-timed 48.8s at a "Guy Fawkes" meeting at Waitakere in November which drew some attention because it was fast for the start of the season. His coach lists Wickes' attributes. "He has great leg speed," Hoggard said. "I'd like him to be about a foot taller so we'll have to see if God helps with that. He is focused but he's also laid-back, so he doesn't get wound up and he doesn't throw tantrums."
How good could he be? "It's a bit early to have guesses but I think we're looking at sub-47s. There's a lot of teenagers who don't want to make the commitment to train five days a week. Frazer at his age is as good as anyone I've seen.
"Bevan Smith was our best 400m runner ever and Frazer at his age is so much better than Bevan was it isn't even funny."
