Cleo Nicola Loader

Happy birthday to New Zealand’s long jumper Cleo Loader, who pulled on the black singlet for the first time this year.

That is the headline and it deserves to be. In May, Cleo represented New Zealand at the Oceania Championships in Darwin — her first international vest, in the toughest heat and humidity the region can offer, in an event where the runway does not care that you are a long way from home. Getting selected for your country is a threshold every athlete either crosses or does not, and she crossed it at 20.

She is a long jumper first, with a sprinter’s speed underneath it, which is exactly the build the event wants. Her career-best sits at 5.60m and she has been climbing steadily towards it out of North Harbour Bays Athletics, having come through Rangitoto College on Auckland’s North Shore. New Zealand’s horizontal jumps have historically been a small, tight-knit group, which means a jumper who arrives with genuine speed and international experience at 20 gets noticed quickly.

The interesting thing about long jumpers is how late the event pays. Approach consistency, board accuracy and the ability to hold top speed through the last six strides are all things that take years to assemble, and they keep improving well past the point at which pure sprinters plateau. Cleo has the first international appearance in the bank, the speed to build on, and every one of those years still ahead of her.

Happy birthday, Cleo! Wishing you a year of fast run-ups, perfect boards and plenty more black singlets. 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇳🇿