Taylor Mechen jumped 12.45m to break the senior boys triple jump record by 7cm at the school yesterday. The previous record, which was the school’s oldest standing record, had been set in 1951 by Colin Gray.
The 17-year-old year 13 pupil was stoked with the performance for more reasons that one. Not only was it significantly further than his previous personal-best of 11.30m, it was his first jump since last summer, after he dislocated his knee playing rugby.
After slippery conditions resulted in the event being moved to later in the day after one jump, he managed 12.25m with his second jump.
"I thought I’d screwed up the jump because my toe hurt quite a lot," he said.
"Then all of a sudden they were just like ‘oh you just broke that by 7cm’."
He thought his improvements had come as a result of doing plenty of cycling over the summer, which helped build his leg strength. He had not been doing club athletics this season, but was intending on competing at the Otago secondary schools championships when he hopes to take part in the triple jump, long jump, high jump, 100m and 4x100m relay.
