Edward’s fast track to success
The son of New Zealand’s fastest man has come home to break his father’s 100m record — and to chase his All Blacks dream.
Speed runs in Edward Osei-Nketia’s family. His father, Ghanaianborn Gus Nketia, broke the New Zealand 100m record after posting a blistering time of
10.11 seconds at the 1994 Commonwealth Games.
But, after smashing his own personal best by running
10.30seconds last month in a time that easily makes him the fastest schoolboy the country has seen,
17-year-old Osei-Nketia appears on track to better his dad’s record in the not-too-distant future.
‘‘We’ll see,’’ he said with a smile.
A New Zealand record at
under-20 level, Osei-Nketia’s eyecatching time was so quick it would have won him the final of the last IAAF World Youth Championships.
It is even more remarkable when you discover that he is yet to begin weight training and still plays rugby in the winter.
‘‘If I take care of myself and train the way that I am right now then hopefully I’ll run under 10 seconds one day.’’
Although he was born in Auckland and spent most of his childhood in New Zealand, OseiNketia has been living in Canberra in recent years.
He started out playing football before moving to athletics, where he has won various age-group titles in Australia, after his father realised he had the potential to become a world class sprinter.
But just like his father, who was born in Ghana but switched allegiances to New Zealand after falling in love with the country at the 1990 Commonwealth Games, Osei-Nketia said he wants to represent Aotearoa.
‘‘I was born with the Kiwis and the Kiwis deserve to get great people to represent their country.’’
Osei-Nketia was lured to Wellington after he was offered a scholarship to Scots College, following an eye-catching performance at the Capital
Classic where he upset New Zealand 100m champion Joseph Millar.
He hopes to do it again at the New Zealand track and field championships in Christchurch next month.
‘‘I was quite blown away when I saw his times. I knew he would run that but not this soon. When I was his age I was running about 11.2 seconds,’’ Nketia said.
‘‘We haven’t done a lot in athletics. We train three days a week, we do no weight training or anything but with the little we do he’s still able to run this time. He could go way faster when he decides to do full athletics training.
‘‘Right now we just do what we can and come out and race but he’s got a lot to learn.
‘‘If we can put it altogether I think he will go even quicker [than I did] but he’s still young and if you push kids too hard then they tend to just leave the sport so we just want to slowly ease him in and let him enjoy it.’’ Gus Nketia said.
But Osei-Nketia is also a keen rugby player and his speed and size (standing 1.90m tall and weighing 95kg) is a massive asset on the pitch. He said he averaged
‘‘He could go way faster when he decides to do full athletics training.’’
Gus Nketia on son Edward
‘‘three to four’’ tries per game for his previous school, St Edmund’s College.
He will play for the Scots College First XV this season and is already attracting interest from the Hurricanes and New Zealand’s sevens programme.
He lists Ardie and Julian Savea as his favourite players and hopes to play for the All Blacks in the future.
Gary Henley-Smith, a former New Zealand sprinter and current director of boarding at Scots College, said there has been plenty of interest ever since Osei-Nketia arrived at school a fortnight ago.
‘‘There’s lots on his table at the moment and after he ran 10.30, which was after he was in New Zealand, his dad’s phoneline has been busy with a lot of US universities chasing him,’’ Henley-Smith said.
‘‘[For us] it’s about building on what he’s got and keeping to what he’s used to doing because obviously it’s working for him.
‘‘He’s real competitive and what is noticeable is that when he runs against faster people he goes to another level. He doesn’t feel the pressure. That’s a unique quality about Ed, he runs against the field.’’
But Osei-Nketia, whose two goals for the season are to win the 100m title in both New Zealand and Australia, said he is no rush to decide which sport to pursue in the future and is happy juggling them both for now.
‘‘That’s an unknown question at the moment and I don’t want to pick sides because it’s just too early. For now I just want to weigh both and focus on my studies,’’ he said.
‘‘I just want people to remember my name for a long time, when I’m long gone I want people to remember that I was a good runner or a good player.’’