Most people can only dream of having the motivation of Eden youngster Jack Caldwell.
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At only 11-years-old and with no running coach, Jack set his sights on finishing in the top 20 at the Australian Cross Country Championships.
The Eden youngster ran by himself after school every day in preparation and on Tuesday night he returned from Tasmania with two shining bronze medals around his neck.
Jack was part of a team of five boys who represented NSW at the School Sport Australia Cross Country Championships in Rokeby in Hobart over the weekend.
His only goal going into the National Championships was to finish in the top 20 and he did just that.
Running the three kilometre event in a blistering time of 11 minutes and 10 seconds, Jack finished in 17th place out of 42 runners, despite getting off to a relatively slow start.
“I got boxed in at the start but I finished strong and over took a lot of others towards the end,” Jack said.
This time was 37 seconds faster than his previous personal best which he ran at the NSW All Schools Cross Country championships in Sydney to qualify for Nationals.
Jack said part of what made his few days away particularly special was making friends with the other members of the NSW team and of course, bringing home two medals.
The NSW team came third in the team event which was calculated by combining the times from all the runners. His team also won bronze in the 5 x 1500m road relay.
“I think that not many kids get the chance to compete at Nationals so I feel lucky and it was pretty fun meeting new people, now I’ve got some new friends,” Jack said.
Jack’s mum Melina Caldwell said she was very proud of Jack’s efforts.
“He was one of the only kids there who doesn’t have a proper running coach, all the other parents couldn’t believe he came 17th in the country without a coach,” Mrs Caldwell said.
“I am very proud that he was able to do this all from his own motivation.”
Jack, who simply runs by himself after school every day, has now set his sights on participating in the Pacific School Games in Adelaide.
“I will have to train a lot to get there,” he said.
But after his amazing effort in Tasmania his training will be changing a little bit.
“My teammate’s mum who was an Australian runner and is a coach said she will send me down some programs to follow to help me improve,” Jack said.
