Blackwood teen Jordan Hewitt wins two national junior titles 18 months after taking up athletics

BLACKWOOD’S Jordan Hewitt has emerged as an athletics star of the future, 26 years after his father was crowned national champion.

SPEND some time in the SA distance running scene and you’ll grow cautious about getting excited about promising junior athletes.

Predictions about future stars come and go and few materialise in a state which has underachieved in terms of producing national-level senior men’s athletes in recent times.

But Blackwood athlete Jordan Hewitt is worth getting excited about.

The 17-year-old last week clocked 1 min 50.7 sec for 800m to finish second in an senior field at Melbourne’s Zatopek — that’s quick.

In fact, Hewitt’s time was less than half-a-second outside the state under-18 record.

What makes him even more exciting is the fact he only took up the sport about 18 months ago.

The son of former national 3000m steeplechase champion Brendan Hewitt, Jordan had resisted the urge to follow his father into athletics until two summers ago when he decided to try a one-off race.

“My parents were always keen for me to do it but I was never really interested until I decided to do a race,’’ Hewitt says.

“I just loved it straight away.

“After that I decided I wanted to get into it.”

With Hewitt senior coaching him, Jordan’s improvement has been staggering.

He announced himself as a serious talent this month when he won the 800m-1500m double at the Australian All-Schools Championships in Adelaide.

Hewitt’s best results to date have been over 800m, but he believes he will eventually specialise in 1500m or even 5000m.

“I see myself as a distance runner but I’m just trying to go as fast as I can at 800m,’’ he says.

“You have to be able to run a fast 800m to be able to step up and run quick at 1500m or longer distance, so it’s nice to be getting some good results in the 800m.”

Hewitt will spend this summer trying to improve his personal bests and is eyeing the sub-3.50 barrier for 1500m.

Along the way he hopes to knock off a few more of his dad’s times at the same age.

“There’s a little bit of in-house rivalry,’’ he jokes.

“But dad is happy to see me running well and knocking off his times.”