Teenage 400m runner just behind the world's fastest

With the biggest race of his life completed, Alex Jordan arrived back in to Nelson yesterday ranked the 17th fastest teenager in the world over 400m.

Jordan competed at the World Junior Athletics Championship in Moncton, Canada, in both the 400m and 4x400m relay. He trained hard every day leading up to the event.

"I felt I did everything I could and that my coaches could. At the end of the day I was happy with my performance and so were they," he said.

Ranked third going in to the heat, Jordan knew a top three finish would qualify him for the semifinal. After a strong start, Jordan held on and managed third place in 47.50 seconds.

"You've always got that doubt because there's always fast people. There were two guys who were running 46 low, and luckily enough I knocked one of them out."

But it was unfamiliar territory for Jordan running in one of the outside lanes.

"I expected to get through the heat. I was in lane seven, you can't see anything out there."

Even after running his second fastest 400m, Jordan felt good afterwards.

"Usually I vomit afterwards, but I didn't. I've come up with a new strategy now where I just walk it off and just keep doing that until the pain goes away and it seemed to have worked."

But the next round was a bridge too far. US star Joshua Mance headlined an impressive lineup, and with Jordan in the outside lane his race plan went out the window once Mance, Canadian Alistair Moona and Botswanian Thapelo Ketlogetswe overtook him less than halfway into the race.

"I had told myself if someone comes past me just keep running my own race, just forget about them and worry about catching them at the end."

Needing a top-two finish to progress, Jordan went after them but died on the home straight.

"I didn't kick in the bottom bend and I knew if I had kicked harder I would have had a better time and gotten higher up in the ladder."

Jordan finished the race in sixth place in 47.65 seconds, which wasn't enough for the final.

"Mistakes are there to learn from. I'd rather make the mistake now than in an Olympic final."

After completing the individual event, Jordan teamed up with Tama Toki, Scott Burch and Joseph Millar for the 4x400m relay, the latter being a late replacement for injured duo Matthew Robinson and Frazer Wickes.

"We had to bring a 100m/200m guy [Millar] in to do the 400m heat. Tama ran really well and Scott did alright, but it was the hardest ever 400m relay at world juniors. You had to run 3:08 just to get through to the final which is getting close to Commonwealth qualifying."

Although they narrowly missed out on a place in the final, Jordan was still rapt with his results.

"Ninth in the world is pretty good. We beat some big nations, France, Italy, Canada. I think we are better for it and in the next race we will come back as a team and I know our time will improve."

He will have two weeks off before he starts training for the New Zealand season, which starts late September.

"It's like an active break. I'll be away from the track but I'm gonna play some tennis, play some basketball, play some other sports just to keep the fitness up but mentally relax. When you train and race as much as I do you get a lot of mental stress."

With plenty of scholarship offers on the table, Jordan has decided to stick around in New Zealand before basing himself in Europe for their track season.

"I have quite a few scholarship offers from American universities, but I've discussed it with my high-performance coaches and the move for me at the end of August is a move to Christchurch. I'm not going to be racing as much as I usually do. But the big plan in the winter is to have more of an international season and base myself around Europe."

He is keen to race against better athletes in bigger contests.

"I need to move slowly move from the domestic New Zealand competition, which is a good competition, but it's not the level of competition I need. I know I will improve more if I focus my peak on the European season in France, Belgium or Germany."

- © Fairfax NZ News