Gideon Barnard (21) has been jumping for more than 10 years, starting at school in his native South Africa. He moved to New Zealand in 2007 and has settled in Queenstown where he has a job as team leader at a restaurant.
He stands 2.01m tall, and with his highest jump of 2.07m, he is now No 1 on the Athletics New Zealand rankings for high jump.
The national record for men's high jump is 2.30m, set by Glenn Howard in 2000.
Earlier this year, Barnard broke Paddy O'Brien's Southland record of 2.04m, which had stood since 1983. O'Brien went on to become an international rugby referee.
Within a month, Barnard had broken the record at three separate competitions with jumps of 2.05m, 2.06m and 2.07m.
Surprisingly, Barnard said he hardly ever trained.
"Due to my job I have not had much time for general fitness training, and Queenstown hasn't really got the facilities for high jump at this level," he said.
"I occasionally train with my coach, Lance Smith, in Invercargill, but basically I just show up to the competitions and give it my best try.
"But I do know I have reached the age where I have to put in a more focused effort to push my results to the next level. So I plan to train much harder next season, in order to reach the international level."
He has two competitions left this season to reach his goal for the season of jumping 2.11m, which is the threshold to go into the qualifying pool for the next Commonwealth Games.
Ideally, he would like to compete for his new country on the international stage.
"If I qualify, I will apply for permanent residency, so that I can represent New Zealand," he said.
He feels he has potential to go much further, but acknowledges it will take both training and funding.
"With a bit more training, I should be able to reach at least 2.18m, but it will probably not be this season. I will keep pushing my aims much higher.
"To get far, I will have to find a sponsorship as well, to get access to attend more competitions both here in New Zealand and internationally.
"The ultimate goal is the Olympics."
