Jason Stewart (athlete)
Encyclopedia
Jason Stewart is a New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 middle distance runner
Middle distance track event
Middle distance running events are track races longer than sprints, up to 3000 metres. The standard middle distances are the 800 metres, 1500 metres and mile run, although the 3000 metres may also be classified as a middle distance event. The 880 yard run, or half mile, was the forebear to the...

.

Junior years:

Stewart is the national junior record holder for New Zealand running a time of 1min48.73 seconds in Papakura, Auckland on the 26th of January 2000. He later went on to finish in 7th position at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Santiago Chile the same year.

Senior achievements:

In 2004 Stewart ran a time of 1min46.28 seconds in Kassel, Germany to qualify for the XXVIII Olympiad
2004 Summer Olympics
The 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, was a premier international multi-sport event held in Athens, Greece from August 13 to August 29, 2004 with the motto Welcome Home. 10,625 athletes competed, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team...

. He competed in the 3rd heat of the 800 meters heats and finished 5th running a personal best 1min46.24 seconds. This time was the 18th fastest in the qualifiers out of 72 entered athletes but he missed qualification for the semi-finals by 0.34 seconds due to qualification rules.

In 2005 Stewart again represented New Zealand at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Helsinki
2005 World Championships in Athletics
The 10th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations , were held in the Olympic Stadium, Helsinki, Finland , the site of the first IAAF World Championships in 1983. One theme of the 2005 championships was paralympic sports, some of...

, Finland. Stewart finished 4th in his heat behind reigning Olympic Champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy
Yuriy Borzakovskiy
Yuriy Mikhailovich Borzakovskiy is a Russian middle distance athlete specializing in the 800 metres.-Athletic career:Borzakovskiy's first major international success was a victory at the 2000 European Indoor Championships when he was only 18 years old. At the 2000 Summer Olympics he reached the...

, reigning World Champion Djabir Saïd-Guerni
Djabir Saïd-Guerni
Djabir Saïd-Guerni is a retired Algerian athlete who competed in the 800 metres.He announced his retirement on 6 May 2007, following injury problems...

 and reigning African Champion William Yiampoy
William Yiampoy
William Oloonkishu Yiampoy is a Kenyan runner who specializes in the 800 metres. His personal best is 1:42.91 minutes, achieved in September 2002 in Rieti....

, 0.21 seconds separating the first four. Unfortunately he also just failed to qualify for the semi-final round. 2005 was Stewart's best year in Europe running a series of sub 1.47 races and winning the IAAF GPII 800 meters race in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium

In 2006, Stewart represented both New Zealand at the XVIII Commonwealth Games
2006 Commonwealth Games
The 2006 Commonwealth Games were held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia between 15 March and 26 March 2006. It was the largest sporting event to be staged in Melbourne, eclipsing the 1956 Summer Olympics in terms of the number of teams competing, athletes competing, and events being held.The site...

 in Melbourne and Oceania at the IAAF World Cup in Athens. Stewart placed 5th in the Melbourne final running 1min47.74 in the heat and 1.47.72 in the final won by Kenyan Alex Kipchirchir
Alex Kipchirchir
Alex Kipchirchir Rono is a middle distance runner from Kenya.- Career :He graduated from Litein High School. He played football and basketball when still at school and did not take up athletics until December 2001, when he met Moses Tanui who persuaded him to become runner...

 in 1.45.88. At the IAAF World Cup Stewart finished 8th in 1.49.01

Stewart competed seven years on the European circuit running for both LAC Quelle and LG Regensburg athletics clubs in Germany. He achieved his highest world ranking of 32 in the men's 800 meters in July of 2006. He also competed as a pacemaker at many top meetings in Europe over 800 and 1500 meters including Zurich, Athens, Berlin and Lausanne. He is the 6th fastest New Zealand 800 meters runner of all time and in terms of major championship performances is behind only Peter Snell
Peter Snell
Sir Peter George Snell, KNZM, MBE is a former New Zealand athlete, now resident in Texas, United States. He had one of the shortest careers of world famous international sportsmen, yet achieved so much that he was voted New Zealand’s "Sports Champion of the Century"...

 and John Walker
John Walker
-Politicians:* John Walker , U.S. Senator, public official, and soldier* John Walker , State Treasurer of Missouri...

. He has won two national titles over 800 meters (2002 and 2006) and was never beaten at the either the National Championships or National Schools Championships at any age level over his favoured 800 meters.

Stewart currently resides in Auckland, New Zealand and goes by the nickname "143man" or "Salad".

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK