Holy Smoke He’s Good

Takapuna Grammar student Jacko Gill, 15, has astonished the athletics world with his shot put ability winning gold at the World Junior Championships in Canada. Gill threw the 6kg ball 20.76m winning by more than 5cm. “He is just 6 foot 1 and 87kg!” cried a blogger on the BBC site. “This is completely bonkers … a guy this small, this young, throwing this far must be completely unprecedented.” He also set a world under-16 age group record. Gill, son of former shot put and discus national champions Walter and Nerida Gill, described himself as thrilled. “I was the young guy coming into the competition and pleased to be able to pull this off since I’m one of the smaller guys in the field,” Gill said. He will next travel to France to train with Valerie Vili and Didier Poppe ahead of the Singapore 21 Youth Olympic Games held on14-26 August.