The young Auckland shot putter Jacko Gill will attempt to gain Olympic qualification tonight as he puts some recent hard training into practice.
Over the next 3 weeks the 16-year-old world champion is attempting to break a number of age-group marks using different weight shots, and tonight will attempt the Olympic qualifying distance at a competition at the Millennium Institute on the North Shore.
He'll turn 17 later this month.
Gill, the current World Under 20 and Under 18 Champion will be aiming for the Olympic standard set by the selectors of 20.30 metres with the 7.26 kg senior weight.... in April this year he was just 29cm short of that.
The field will also include New Zealand's second ranked Shot Putter Tom Walsh who has a best of 18.26 metres.
Next Monday Gill will throw with the 6kg-under 20 weight seeking to improve on his World best of 21.34 for 16 and 17 years.
The following Monday he'll attempt to improve his Under 18 World best with the 5kg weight for 16 and 17 years.
He holds the World Under 18 record at 24.35 metres.
