While you can certainly tweak technique and form to maximise it the simple fact is you can't teach raw speed, and that's something Orange whippet Jordan White has.
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He's proved as much recently by blowing his competition away at Little Athletics' regional and state championships and matching it with the best at the Athletics NSW Junior Track and Field Championships too.
At the latter his bronze medal in the under-15 boys' 200-metre sprint earned him qualification for next month's national equivalent, a fair effort considering he's just 13 and was competing in the age group above his own.
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"I did have high hopes, and I do for everything coming up too," White said.
White clocked 24.04 in the preliminaries last month and was the fastest qualifier for the final, he shaved .05 off his time in that final too, finishing 0.17 of a second behind gold medalist Rashid Kabba.
That effort came after winning gold in all three events at the Little Athletics regional championship and a silver in the boys' 12-17 years 4x100m relay alongside Ollie Keegan, Angus Thompson and Bayden Willis too, before claiming bronze in the 400m sprint at the state event last weekend.
Personal best (times) are what I'm looking for, and just do the best I possibly can (at nationals).
- Jordan White
There was a wealth of other Orange youngsters who killed it at both those meets too but with White it's worth remembering he only started running competitively a couple of years ago and by his own admission, hasn't really spent much time training intensively.
"I started running in year five and I tried pretty hard but I didn't go too far (initially), but [once] I started training a little bit more I made it to state in year six," White said, who's now in year eight at Orange Christian School and backed that up with selection in last year's NSW Christian Schools Sports Association's team.
With his focus now on nationals, where he'll again compete above his own age group, White is keeping his immediate goals realistic.
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But in terms of the future, well, who knows.
"Well, for now, personal best (times) are what I'm looking for, and just do the best I possibly can and hopefully one day place at nationals," he said.
"With training I'm hoping to do more than what I usually do, because I haven't really done that much in the past and we're looking into more [personal, specific] training in the future."
Basically, there's nothing to say the Commonwealth Games and even the Olympics are out of the question, although is a long way down the track.
"I don't know, really, we'll see," White said.
The 2019 Australian Junior Track and Field Championships are at Sydney Olympic Park Athletic Centre, from April 1-7.
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