Jonah Cropp, 18, will represent New Zealand in the 10km event at the World Athletics racewalking team championships in Turkey in April.
“It does feel really good with how far I’ve come with it, but I still plan to go way, way further,” he said.
The recently graduated St Andrew’s College student began racewalking when he was 10.
His peers did not take the sport seriously when he first started.
“People just thought it was a wee silly thing. But, as I got more and more awards for it, they started being, like, even if they didn’t know me, oh, that’s the speedwalking guy.”
Racewalking is similar to speed or powerwalking and has two main rules – one foot must be on the ground at all times and competitors must keep their bottom leg straight until the leading leg lands.
Cropp said the most difficult challenge is maintaining speed over a long distance.
“You have to really work to try and keep the same pace for every single kilometre.”
He won the 10km event at the New Zealand road running championships in September.
His time of 47min, 23sec in the under-20 event qualified him for the world championships.
To save the $3000 required for the trip to Turkey, Cropp will host sausage sizzles and offer a lawn mowing service.
He plans to study psychology and sports coaching at Canterbury University next year.
“I’m going to be focusing a lot more on my sport.”
Cropp’s long-term goal is to qualify for the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 or Brisbane in 2032.
To prepare for the world championships he trains in the gym twice a week and has a cardio session on Sunday and a race on Saturday.
“It’s very enjoyable. I’ve made tonnes of progress, looking back at what I was doing last year compared to this year, or the year beforehand.”
• To find out about Cropp’s lawn mowing service, call 020 410 10731
