<&>Wellington Corpus of Spoken New Zealand English Version One <&>Copyright 1998 School of Linguistics & Applied Language Studies <&>Victoria University of Wellington <&>side one <&>0:17 known as the best male high jumper to come out of new zealand a young maori by the name of roger te puni has elevated the sport of high jumping to great heights in aotearoa i first asked roger how old he was when he first took up athletics <&>theme music continues for seven seconds i was doing athletics <.>and and playing rugby when i was a a little youngster about six years old um did athletics in the summer time and er competed for the porirua club er there was no tawa club at that stage and er was playing rugby as well so didn't really get serious until er oh about the sixth form at school really <{><[>where i started to get full into athletics <[>did you and when did you realise you had an ability to jump to take up the actual discipline of high jumping er it was when i didn't have the ability to er sprint fast enough or hurdle fast <{><[>enough er i i did sprinting and won a lot of regional championships for my age and er started to get beaten er when i was about i think about oh thirteen and that so i wasn't the best in wellington so i thought i well i don't want to do this so i took up hurdles and dominated there for a couple of years and took up high jump er when i was about sixteen years old <[>laughs is that right so er yeah the speed and the er er sort of jumping ability went together pretty well so i was a bit of a late starter as far as er sort of getting into the the specialist sort of stuff <{1><[1>er in that event <{2><[2>but um been doing it since that <[1>yeah <[2>exhales that's the trouble with our athletes our specially our maori ones who got that versatility eh yeah plenty of versatility there um they tend to er i think um <&>3:00 the structure of the school sort of set up <.>and and er team sports and things like that i mean athletics is is sort of a team sport at school um but you know i think maybe the direction is is lost a little bit when they leave school and er they sort of tend to gravitate more towards the rugby and the league and er netball but they've got a lot to offer in track and field and er other commonwealth sports and olympic sports as well i think okay who were the people that supported you in your early stage of your um athletics career tut um oh my family's always been behind me <{1><[1>um er they're pretty proud to sort of er have my name in lights so to speak but um you know i i got sort of hand picked out by a a coach mike beeble who's a you know the other half of barbara beeble sort of er fraternity and er mike's been coaching quite a few of champion athletes and er he sort of hand picked me when i was about sixteen and said er you know concentrate on it and you'll er you'll do good er so yeah i still sort of er tend to him for advice over the last couple <&>3:00 of years even though he's been sort of more er tending towards a career sort of path but um yeah you know you all have your er your idols that you sort of er look at <{2><[2>and er there's a couple of athletes that er i follow the progress in so <{3><[3>yeah <[1>yeah <[2>mhm <[3>tell us roger about how you felt when you first put on that silver fern and went to your first game er it was pretty scary actually um nineteen eighty two er i'd made a new zealand SECondary schools team which was with athletes my own age but er that was in eighty one in nineteen eighty two i got named in the er voc the new zealand team for brisbane commonwealth games and er i got there and er it was pretty scary er competing against a guy named mild otty who was ranked number one in the WORLD at that stage <{1><[1>er and i you know people like greg joy who was olympic silver medallist and there were these big names who you used to read about and watch on t v and um here i was on the er on the same sort of er <&>4:00 track as them and voc on the day there was about sixty thousand people it was a capacity crowd and er when the aussies er missed and i beat the aussies the er crowd got in behind me like i was a sort of a second cousin sort of thing <{2><[2>so the word no it was er it worked well i jumped a new zealand junior record on the day and jumped a lot higher than my new zealand ranking and um you know it went really well um so no i was pretty happy with it but yeah it really sort of brought out the best in me <[1>oh right <[2>right the march past at the start of the games would've been an awesome feeling yeah it was it was um you know it was the first time i'd been involved with that so er yeah it was pretty mind blowing with the er crowds and stuff the one thing with er australia was that er the athletes um didn't march past until right near the end so we missed <&>pronounced as wished missed most of the show um but in in new zealand in nineteen ninety it was a different kettle of fish the athletes came in er earlier so we got to see a lot of the show and er er the only thing that was better than the march past in australia was the one in er nineteen ninety in auckland <{><[>when er you know obviously our home crowd <[>right how many games have you actually competed in <&>5:00 roger um skipped a couple i went to nineteen eighty two commonwealths um didn't get picked for eighty six for reasons unknown <{1><[1>um <.>it's i jumped two metres eighteen and er got told i wasn't good enough and then two metres fourteen won the bronze medal so i was sitting at home watching it on t v and i jumped a lot higher than the bronze medallist so um these things sort of happen so i missed there and then i went to nineteen ninety um voc did qualify for ninety four and er you know i'm not getting on the plane for that one for another you know political reasons probably <{2><[2>i don't know but you know i've done major championships in between world championships in ninety one in tokyo was probably one of you know the THE biggest meet i'd been in <[1>mm <[2>yeah mm how important is the coach in the er discipline of high jumping roger er well yeah <.>y you can't really do without them um you need someone there to er specially watch your technique sessions because you may be doing something wrong you don't know that you're doing it wrong and er unless it gets pointed out you'll continue to do it wrong so <&>6:00 but um over the years i've learnt how to sort of work my body and condition it and work on the weights and apply metrics and running sort of side of things but you really do need someone there to watch your technique work mm um you know in the last er couple of years i've really haven't put as much time in to concentrating on on full on athletics but i've picked and sort of chosen my meets and my coach um has still been there when i've asked him to turn out to er watch a few of my technique sessions roger is there a strong contingent of promising high jumpers coming through in new zealand um exhales tut there voc there is one who is who's phenomenal at the moment a guy glen howard from er christchurch um over the years i've seen about six or seven guys who have come up um to challenge me and it's been a bit disappointing because i've taken a couple of beatings and a you know with me when i was getting beaten i was i was nastier and hungrier to to come out there and <&>7:00 do the job so these guys have have quit at quite an early age but um glen howard's is coming through and he's qualified for the world junior championships and he'll be going there to portugal in er july they'll be competing and um i would have thought <.>th voc like both myself because i qualify for ninety four games um and also glen would have been given a chance to er get into the commonwealth games on the way home from portugal <{1><[1>um just for experience um these athletes you know when they're showing some er potential have got to be given the chances otherwise you know we're going to lose them somewhere else <{2><[2>they're obviously got some ability so they'll they'll go and show that ability in another sport if we don't look after them so <{3><[3>um tut you know there is a bit of a nucleus there but glen's the leading leading light there <{4><[4>and er is doing the job <[1>mm <[2>right <[3>right <[4><.>i are there other maori competing in this discipline also in the high jump? mm not a lot <{><[>there's a couple of young guys who er i've seen out and about in <&>8:00 the regional championships er er the last er high jumper in new zealand i think of any note was a of maori descent was a guy peter ranginui from er wanganui he um he apparently is a very good touch rugby player now <[>not a lot okay so um but it's an event er where you know you've got to have sort of er speed explosive power um gymnastic ability and and you know height always helps and er you've got to be reasonably light but powerful with it so <{><[>er you'll sort of know that er a lot of er young maori are pretty solid er solid er strong sort of athletes you know more tending towards shot put and discus maybe there's a couple of those out there so yeah yeah so not a lot of high jumpers out there <[>mm okay we'll get into the er to the area of finance how important is finance and sponsorship to an athlete of of this ability tut um well really er if you if you reach sort of er being the best in the country um <&>9:00 it's it's almost impossible to continue to improve on your own er jumping against yourself basically <{1><[1>um for a period of about eight years there i would wake up every morning before a national championships and i'd know i was going to win before i got there you know that's not gonna bring out the best in you um you NEED to be able to um once you've attained er national sort of er prominence you need to be able to um er look for overseas competition um tut <.>i it's a different <.>s kettle <.>o kettle of fish in in in a distance race you know you may be able to nominate a four hundred metre runner in new zealand to pacemake an eight hundred metre race in new zealand er you know in high jump it's impossible to get a pacemaker <{2><[2>you've just got a barrier there so the only way to bring out the best is to compete against the best so that um it'll scare you into a to good performance er there's nothing like a you know experience like that <[1>mm <[2>right mhm and er unfortunately we're pretty isolated er australia has now got some very good high jumpers so that would be the first step i think <&>10:00 for a young high jumper um or any young athlete in track and field and er then you know if you're good enough and can make the grade then er you know i based myself in london for a while and competed in europe <{><[>um financing myself most of the time tut um if you're good enough you know you can make money and and support yourself <[>right mm so <{1><[1>that yeah you really need to iNITIALLY you need some backing um track and field is a major sport in europe but in new zealand it hasn't got a high profile <{2><[2>we're stuck in this er rugby netball sort of syndrome and we're doing well in those sports but you've really got to remember how many countries are actually competing in track and field and how many countries actually play netball <[1>mm <[2>right right so you know those are those are sort of the barriers that you're coming across <&>10:44