Osei-Nketia quick off the mark
New Zealand Rugby is salivating over sprint sensation Edward Osei-Nketia as he takes his first tentative steps in the sevens scene.
The 18-year-old 100m specialist is part of the Red Bull Ignite 7 squad in camp in Auckland. The 96 players will be whittled down to six to join NZR’s development camp.
Osei-Nketia won’t be part of that next step as his body is preserved for the challenge of sprinting at next year’s Tokyo Olympics. Rugby is a long-term goal and as a way of introducing him to the Kiwi methods, both the sprinter and his rugby coaches are delighted at what has unfolded over the past couple of days.
‘‘I’ve never seen an athlete with those genetics, ever,’’ New Zealand Rugby’s high performance sevens talent ID manager PJ Williams said.
‘‘He is 99 per cent fast twitch muscle fibre. I’ve never seen an athlete [like Osei-Nketia] walk through our doors in rugby, ever. And we probably never will see one again.’’
Asked about Osei-Nketia’s potential, Williams said: ‘‘How long is a piece of string? He has got speed, he has got size, he has got an attitude that is focused for high performance.’’
Explosive speed isn’t unusual in rugby but it’s Osei-Nketia’s ability to maintain that speed that makes him a freakish talent for the sport. Williams said opponents would just drop away from him the longer he ran.
Osei-Nketia was pumped after doing some sprint training yesterday. He’s no stranger to rugby, having played it through school in Australia.
‘‘I was always stuck on the wing. But I could see myself as a fullback, centre and if I can pull my head straight, I could be a flyhalf too. I’d need to improve on my kicking game though,’’ he laughed.
He insists he is serious about his intentions to play rugby and was thrilled with his first impressions of this highperformance scene. For him, the Auckland camp won’t involve physical contact and he was working as much on his running as his ball skills. ‘‘I’m here trying to learn more as I go as a sprinter, learn the game, learn the people and learn as many different things about rugby as possible so that one day, if possible, we can make a switch and I can be on top of the game.
‘‘We don’t know what is going to happen, we have to keep our options open.’’
Osei-Nketia isn’t sure how long his running career will last. But he didn’t rule out the possibility of perhaps representing New Zealand at the Paris 2024 Olympics in both athletics and sevens. He said much of that would be about the Games scheduling and also his form in either discipline.
‘‘We’ll take it one at a time at the moment but I would love to do both.’’
He likes the physicality of rugby and the open nature of sevens.
‘‘Sevens is a game suited for me
New Zealand Rugby’s high performance sevens talent ID manager
‘‘I’ve never seen an athlete [like Osei-Nketia] walk through our doors in rugby. And we probably never will see one again.’’ PJ Williams
because of my speed and structure and the way I can play the game.’’
Osei-Nketia is fresh from his debut at the world athletics championships in Qatar where he ran 10.24sec to miss out on a semifinal berth by just 0.01sec.
He said he was nervous to be running his heat between Olympic silver medallist Justin Gatlin and bronze medallist Andre De Grasse but would learn a lot from that experience moving towards Tokyo 2020. He will now concentrate on the summer season with an eye on lowering his best time of 10.19sec.
Having been courted by the Australian athletics system, he chose New Zealand because of his ties here through father Gus Nketia who remains the New Zealand 100m record holder with a time of 10.11sec set in 1994.
NZR believes he is genuine about his intentions and is willing to invest in his growth.
‘‘He was born in New Zealand, he was caught up in the culture of the All Blacks, he knows a lot of the All Blacks, he has watched the sevens boys,’’ Williams said.
‘‘The black jersey and the black singlet have lured him back here. He has a real passion for New Zealand.
‘‘New Zealand did a lot of things for his dad and his family and I think it goes a lot deeper than just switching sports and codes . . . the kid is really interested in doing his best for New Zealand.’’