Paralympian Jacob Phillips back in Hamilton for world champs qualifier

Twenty-year-old Paralympic sprinter Jacob Phillips will return to Hamilton for the NZ Athletics Track and Field Championships this week.

The national event takes place at Chartwell’s Porritt Stadium from Friday March 17, finishing on the Sunday.

“It’s a chance for us [para-athletes] to showcase our talent alongside other athletes,” Phillips said.

The meeting is an opportunity for Phillips to qualify for the World Para Athletics Championship in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park from July 14-23.

Phillips, a 100m and 200m runner with hypertonia (an abnormal increase in muscle tension and a reduced ability of a muscle to stretch), was a late qualifier for the 2016 Rio Paralympics.

He was next on the list to go when the Russian team dropped out, making space for him.

“It’s still pretty surreal,” Phillips said.

He made both finals at Rio and now his sights are on the World Athletics Championships, part of London’s Summer of World Athletics.

Criss Strange, an athlete life advisor for High Performance Sport said that Rio was a huge experience for Phillips and that he’s ready to qualify for the World Championships.

 “He’s actually in really good form,” Strange said. “He’s on target for that.”

Last year was supposed to be a restoration year for Phillips after a diagnosis for Hodgkin Lymphoma prevented him from training for six months.

“So, I sat down with coach and Criss and we said what’s 2016 going to look like? We wanted to focus on getting my speed back and to get back to where I was pre-cancer. We decided it was going to be a rebuild year,” Phillips said.

But his first race back he managed two personal best times for both the 100 and 200-meter race.

“It made me more determined to come back faster and stronger than ever,” he said.

Phillips does not think of his competitors as rivals. However, the closest he has to one is Will O’Neill who he will compete against him at both the New Zealand and Australian nationals this month.

Phillips said that although juggling his training and study at Otago University has been a challenge, he is feeling ready for nationals.

He trains six days of the week with one rest day, alternating between gym work and track training.

He has a coaching team in both Otago and Hamilton when he returns home during holidays.

Phillips, an ex-Hamilton Boy’s High student, is currently in his second year at Otago, studying a Bachelor of Physical Education.

 “Uni have been very accommodating,” he said.

He received a Prime Minister’s Scholarship to assist with funding his study.

Strange said that it will be great for him to compete in his hometown with his friends and family in attendance.

He looks forward to returning to spending time with family and catching up with friends before he jets off to the Australian nationals on March 28.

Eventually, Phillips hopes to help and inspire other para-athletes.

He already has the resume for it with his positions as youth ambassador of Parafed Waikato and as a  Halberg Youth Council member.

“I’ve had some pretty amazing people help me,” Phillips said. “I’d like to do the same.”  

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