Jacko Gill’s road to Tokyo

Hayes Knight has been a sponsor of top performing athlete Jacko Gill for a few years now. Our support has allowed Jacko to compete at international competitions in the lead up to representing New Zealand in shot put at the Tokyo Olympics that were originally scheduled for this month. We recently asked Jacko how the postponement of the Games has affected him and here is what he had to say…

With the Olympics postponed until 2021, it has definitely meant a lot of our preparations have had to change. I am so fortunate to be an athlete in New Zealand; it’s heart breaking to see the affects Covid19 has had worldwide.

I had plans to be in China for the World Indoors in early March 2020, at a location about one hour from Wuhan. Fortunately, the event was cancelled a week before I was due to fly in – definitely a close call. From late May 2020 to early August 2020 I was scheduled to be in Europe/Asia, competing and preparing for Tokyo.

We had planned a three month hard strength building phase leading up to these overseas campaigns. The strength phase has now been extended to a twelve month block, with some New Zealand competitions throughout. I hope to come out of 2020 a lot stronger, and technically sharper, and I have used this added time to my advantage!  Can’t wait for 2021!