Son of Olympic Legend Dominates at All Schools

18-year-old Zen Clark, son of Australian Olympic legend Darren Clark, dominated the ACPE NSW All Schools Championships last month, claiming gold in the U19 Boys 100m and 200m events.

The Bathurst High School student ran an impressive time of 11.11 in the 100m and 21.63 in the 200m Final.

At the NSW Junior Championships in February, Clark won gold in the U20 Boys 200m sprint with a time of 22.25 running against a strong -2.1 wind. He also claimed bronze in the U20 Boys Long Jump with a distance of 6.74 metres.

Clark developed his passion for the sport through Little Athletics, training with Bathurst LAC during his youth. In September, Clark also won two golds at the CHS Athletics Championships.

Sprinting is in Zen’s blood – his father still owns the Australian 400m record, set over 30 years ago during the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.

Darren serves as a mentor and coach to Zen, who has only been training for track and field for eight months.

“I’m really happy with his form at the moment because it’s really only his third race. We’ve been training since March, so to be running this fast this early, considering the training we’re doing, I couldn’t be happier. I’m very happy with his progress,” said Darren.

“He’s a pleasure to coach – it’s a rare thing; father and son. He’s very self-motivated; he knows what he wants, and I couldn’t ask any more from him. I’m very proud of him.”

Despite the double gold at All Schools, Zen wants to continue improving his sprinting.

“I didn’t want it to be a straight final because I wanted to have a heat as a bit of a warm-up, but got the win and got a pretty good time. I would’ve hoped to run a little faster in the final; get ready for the 100m,” said Zen.

Although Zen doesn’t have a wealth of experience in the sport, he’s on track to achieve great things in athletics, and he’s setting his sights on qualifying for the 2020 World U20 Championships.

“I’d never really trained before… I wasn’t training this time last year,” said Zen.

“I play for the Western NSW Mariners and a range of sports like basketball and soccer, but [athletics] is my main goal; that’s what I want to do. I’d like to get to next year’s U20 World Championships qualifier – that’s my goal.”

Nic Savage

Athletics NSW