DASHING JAGGA RUNS HOT
HE is not yet the fastest Tasmanian but young sensation Jagga Pybus is showing he is one to keep an eye on after recently clocking the sixth fastest 100m time run by a Tasmanian.
The Margate speedster said it was a last-minute decision to start his racing season on Thursday at the Athletics South meet but he does not regret it after the 20-year old smashed his previous best, from 2018, to fly home in 10.57 seconds and become the sixth fastest Tasmanian yet, and third fastest in the past 21 years.
“I was actually planning on waiting a few weeks before my first run but then good conditions were forecast and Jacob Despard shot me a message encouraging me to race, so I decided to give it a go and I was very happy I did,” Pybus said.
“I was hoping for a sub-11 second run to start the season, which I’ve actually never done so to get 10.57 and beat my PB was definitely a shock.”
The UTas commerce student has been on the athletics scene since he was 12 and after a dominant schoolboy career finally looks primed to take the state’s senior athletics field by storm.
His previous best was 10.74, and he said after a host of niggling injuries in recent years his body was in shape to compete with the best.
“Over the past couple of years I’ve been troubled by a couple of injures and that’s why I haven’t been able to run anything close to that time,” he said.
“Thankfully I’ve got my body right and I had an uninterrupted pre-season with a lot of consistent training, which included putting in a lot of work in the gym, so I think the combination of training on the track and in the gym definitely played a big part in my run.”
Pybus said he was aiming for 10.50 to crack the top three on the state’s all-time 100m list.
“Having run 10.57 at the very start of the season means I’ve got five months left of the season to drop .07 of a second, which I’d like to think is possible,” he said.
“We had a nice little breeze on the track on Thursday but it was only half of what the legal limit is, so if good conditions come along later on in the season when I’m planning on competing then I reckon it’s a chance.”
The young sprinter’s improvement could be put to the ultimate test in late December with Pybus planning to compete at the annual Athletics South Reunion Day, which is believed to be featuring the return of Jack Hale, the state’s fastest over the 100m distance.
Hobart’s Despard, the second fastest, is also expected to be at the event.