Kiwi high jumper Hamish Kerr may have been in the clouds this morning but he isn't sure news of his record-breaking win in Slovakia has made it to his parents thanks to much harsher weather back here.
Kerr broke his New Zealand record this morning with a 2.34m effort en route to winning the Banska Bystrica indoor meet today, bettering his previous mark by 3cm.
The 26-year-old was rapt with the result but told 1News this afternoon with his parents based on West Auckland beach Karekare, he wasn't sure if they knew what he'd done with Cyclone Gabrielle impacting the area.
"It's been a bit of a hair-raising few days," Kerr told 1News.
"They're safe and the house is good but a lot of the houses out there are pretty smoked and it's not looking like there's a way out for them there at the moment.
"They're sort of stuck there with no power and very little service so I don't actually know if they know I've jumped so well.
"Hopefully they'll get the message when they turn their phones on at some point."
Kerr said he was thinking of everyone back in New Zealand, thinking he was going to miss a "good summer" in Aotearoa after opting to go to Europe to improve his numbers, noting he was "lacking horsepower" prior to making adjustments.
"We've made some awesome changes and there's some really good things that have been happening over the brief offseason I've had and we came over here, so far away from New Zealand early in the season because we knew there were some good jumps there and I've shown that they're there.
"There's more to come, for sure."
Kerr concludes his European indoor campaign with an outing at the Birmingham World Indoor Tour Final next Sunday before he heads back to New Zealand to compete at the New Zealand Track & Field Championships in Wellington next month.
"This year is all about setting up for Paris [Olympics]," he said.
"The winners jumped 2.37m last time [at the Tokyo Olympics] and that's something I feel I'm capable of getting up to - the goal this year was to push up to about 2.35 or 2.36 and it's February now and we're already 3cm closer.
"I definitely feel if I can get to 2.37m or 2.38m then I'll be a medal contender for sure and that's something I'm very set on."
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