Stephen Thorpe, Bronze medalist at 2023 Pacific Games. Photo: Laura Overton, The New Zealand Team.
Auckland decathlete Stephen Thorpe has returned home from the Solomon Islands with a medal but he's not taking his foot off the blocks.
Thorpe won his first international medal at the Pacific Games last month and is straight back into training preparing for his last competition of the year.
"When I got home coach only gave me a week off, but an extra week would've been great," Thorpe jokes.
However, he is still on a high after finishing his Pacific Games with a bronze.
"Winning the bronze felt awesome, the competition conditions were so tough so to come away with a medal felt great.
"It has been a while since I last got to put everything together."
Stephen Thorpe, Bronze medalist at 2023 Pacific Games. Photo: Laura Overton, The New Zealand Team.
The 21-year-old says he had a "really good" preparation leading up to the games.
"It was relatively unscathed. I managed to stay injury free and got some good solid training before going."
Thorpe's coach, Matthew Wyatt, a former national long jumper, says he was confident, if his athlete "could perform consistently across the two days, the podium would be well within his reach."
Although, a medal was the aim for the decathlete, the main motivation was "to soak up the full experience of being a part of a New Zealand team for", Wyatt says.
Wyatt also coaches Camryn Smart who won silver in the 400m at the games.
Thorpe started track and field at the age of 13 for Roskill South athletics club.
After having difficulty choosing a main event, "I chose the decathlon because it combines everything."
Thorpe tells RNZ that his favourite event to race is 400m and least is the 1500m.
"I think everyone can collectively agree that the 1500m is the worst event in decathlon."
Outside of athletics Thorpe works as landscaper up to eight hours a day, whist training six times a week.
"It's definitely a fine balance. It's all about making sure that I am careful how much time I spend on my feet every day.
"I allow myself enough time to rest and recover and make my trainings count when I am at the track."
Coach Wyatt says he manages Thorpe's training load by "connecting daily on his fatigue levels and overall state".
"If adjustments need to be made to a session or for the week ahead, we return to our foundation of priorities and ask what the most important thing is we want to get out of the day."
In 2022, Thorpe was unsuccessful in finishing at the New Zealand Combined Events nationals due to a significant quad tear.
However, the Bays club representative managed to claim a third-place finish at the Queensland Championships last December.
With a new shiny bronze medal added to his collection he says he has "a lot more internal drive to get better".
The young athlete will be focusing on the New Zealand Combined Event nationals, Australian National Champs and has hopes of qualifying into the Oceania team next year.
Long-term Thorpe has his eyes set on wearing the fern again on the Commonwealth stage.
"My role is to help guide Stephen to move from rung to rung. We are working on identifying opportunities along that journey and breaking it down into small goals," Wyatt says.
Small goals including, "becoming National Champion, win a medal at an Australian Championships et cetera."
"The more exposure Stephen can get to competition on an international stage the better."
For now, to wrap up his stellar season, Thorpe will compete at the Daikin Night of 5 in the gifted 100m race on Saturday.
