Tara Murray
Young rising star Frankleen Newah-Jarfoi continues to make those in the athletics world stand up and take notice.
After recently winning four state titles at the Victorian Track and Field state championships, Newah-Jarfoi will this week compete in up to four events at the Australian Track and Field championships.
Speaking before heading to Sydney for the event, Newah-Jarfoi said he was pretty excited to be competing at that level again.
“I’m competing in the 100 metres, 200 metres, long jump and hopefully the relay,” he said.
“It’ll be my fourth year competing in the 100 metres and 200 metres and third year in the long jump.
“It in terms of coping with nerves and the atmosphere and trying to stay calm under pressure, I’m pretty used to it.”
Newah-Jarfoi won silver and bronze at last year’s nationals, after winning gold in both the 100 metres and long jump in 2019 when he was in the under-15s.
The 16-year-old is hoping that he will again be in the mix.
“For the long jump, I’m currently ranked first and hopefully I can bring home the gold. In the 100 metre, my personal best puts me up in the top three ranking.”
Newah-Jarfoi, who was born in West Sierra Leone, before the family migrated to Australia. They lived in Wagga Wagga, before moving to Werribee in 2017.
That is when he joined Werribee Little Athletics Centre, before joining Western Athletics. He is part of the Team VIBE squad, led by Daniel Sneyders.
“The Western Athletics community is amazing,” Newah-Jarfoi said. “They are connected with people on an individual level despite being such a big club.
“They’ve got a few athletes going up to nationals, mainly sprinters.”
Athletics is something that Newah-Jarfoi has always done. But it hasn’t always been his only love.
“I’ve been through a range of sports. Athletics was my first sport starting in under-8s and then there’s been a few trial and errors with other sports.
“Rugby league, rugby union for a year, touch football and Aussie rules. I’ve been doing athletics throughout the whole journey.”
Now he has been playing gridiron during the off season. While he’s had all this success in athletics, he’s not sure whether he will pursue it professionally.
Travelling to Caulfield for school each day, Newah-Jarfoi is still deciding what his future holds.
“At the moment, I’m definitely more a team sports guy, but then again I’ve being doing athletics my whole life so there’s special place in my heart.
“I’m going to have to make a choice, but I don’t think we’re there yet.”
Tara Murray
