Nor'West News: December 07, 2023

6
Thursday December 7 2023
Walker closer to Olympics
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• By Dylan Smits
AN OLYMPIC hopeful wants
to go all the way in
racewalking, but first he has
to raise the funds to fly to the
world championships.
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
WINNING: Racewalker Jonah Cropp (right), competing
at the New Zealand road running championships in
Palmerston North. ​
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