Crossfit teen toils for title
A Waiuku teen is striving to take the title of world’s fittest teenager after qualifying for the World CrossFit Games.
Fifteen-year-old Jack Laker will compete against 19 athletes from around the globe in Wisconsin this August, in a competition designed to test his physical limits.
‘‘CrossFit is anything you can think of to do with fitness, so it’s high intensity, low intensity, lifting weights, running, swimming, gymnastics... anything you can come up with,’’ Jack said.
Jack started the sport on the day of his 11th birthday.
‘‘My mum started, and she thought I’d like it, help me with rugby.
‘‘And then I fell in love with it a bit more than rugby.’’
A turning point for Jack came last November when he travelled to Melbourne to watch the CrossFit Invitational Games.
‘‘I thought wow I want to do this when I get older, that’s when I started putting in hard hours and eating properly.’’
To qualify for the world games athletes post their training routines online. The top 200 are then given four workouts they must perform over a four day period.
Jack’s result ranked him 14th worldwide for his age bracket.
Coach MacGuinness Hira said Jack puts in 20 hours a week of dedicated training.
‘‘Any spare time he has he’s down here trying to work on his craft.’’
Hira said Jack often wakes up at 5pm in the morning to train. In his lunch break he will make his way back to the gym and back again in the evening.