Original article appeared in The Wanaka App 21 Dec 2022. Written by Diana Cocks
There may be something in local air as another Wānaka sprinter has just run faster than ever before
to claim a national win.
A senior member of the Aspiring Athletes Club (AAC), Jackson Rogers smashed his own 200m personal best (PB) time by an astonishing 0.68 seconds to win the Senior Men’s 200m in a time of 21.40s at the Tauranga Christmas Open meet last weekend (December 17).
His impressive performance means Jacks on (20) is now ranked fourth in New Zealand over the 200m
distance. He also set a new PB of 10.81s to earn second in the Senior Men’s 100m at Tauranga.
What is more remarkable is that Jackson is new to sprinting. Standing 1.96m tall, Jackson began his competitive athletics career only two years ago as a high jumper and was placed third in the NZ Junior Men’s High Jump in 2020.
After discovering stress fractures in two vertebrae last year, he switched to sprint training early this year to aid his rehabilitation.
“His ascendancy through the sprinting ranks in NZ has been quite remarkable,” his AAC coach Michael Beable said.
“He's risen swiftly through the national sprinting ranks, to a level where he can now be regarded as part of NZ men's sprinting elite.”
In March this year, with only six or seven weeks of specialised sprint training under his belt, Jackson competed at the New Zealand national athletics champs; he made it into the Men’s 100m final and was the ninth fastest qualifier in the Men’s 200m final, Michael said.
When he is home in Frankton on holidays from university, he travels to Wānaka two or three times a week to train with other AAC members on the grass track beside Wānaka’s Recreation Centre, and under the watchful eye of his coach.
Which is where the Wānaka App caught up with Jackson who said he’s very aware he’s still pretty new
to the sprinting world.
“I’m competing with a lot of guys with far more experience,” he said. “I don't feel much pressure though because I feel like I've got nothing to lose. I'm still sort of making my name. I think as I get on there'll be more and more pressure but I don't mind the pressure. If anything it helps me a little bit,” he said.
Even though he’s still very competitive at 100m his greatest success to date has been in the 200m. “I think the 200m is a happy medium for me. I think it gives me time to sort of get my longer legs up and running so by the time we get on to the straight it's all good.”
He attributes his success to a number of factors, such as sound coaching, supportive parents and
training/life balance. “I feel like there's not just one thing you can just point out and say this is the reason why I'm here. It's just everything contributing and adding up.”
Jackson earned an ‘elite’ sports scholarship and is studying a double major in global business and
marketing at Lincoln University. The scholarship allows him to train under Michael’s coaching plan but
with additional support from personal trainers in Christchurch. “The scholarship has been super helpful for my development; having eyes on me, guiding me and trying to just slowly build up rather than just rush into everything,” Jackson said.
“I feel like I have pretty high expectations for myself [but] I’m enjoying it too. When you're having fun
you're always going to be doing better.” He said during the winter he and Michael discussed future goals but having already exceeded expectations early on means they’ll have to go back to the drawing board, ‘set the bar a little higher”, and maybe look at the Australian championships.
“Right now, I just want to take each race one at a time and just continue to build rather than sort of focusing on a huge big season finale,” he said.
Michael said with Jackson being on such a rapid rise in improvement, “it's reasonable to expect he will go even faster if he strikes good conditions in the summer months ahead”.
Article added: Monday 09 January 2023
