Personal information | |
---|---|
Nationality | New Zealand |
Born | Cape Town | 29 March 2000
Sport | |
Sport | Athletics |
Event(s) | 60m, 100m |
Achievements and titles | |
Personal best(s) | 60m: 6.50 (2025) 100m: 10.10 (2025) 200m: 21.28 (2021) Triple J: 14.07m (2019) |
Tiaan Whelpton (born 29 March 2000) is a track and field athlete from New Zealand who competes as a sprinter. In 2023, he became New Zealand national champion over 100 metres. [1]
Born and raised in Cape Town his focus won on rugby union before switching entirely to track and field in his final year of high school in 2018. He moved with his family to Christchurch in 2019. [2]
In 2019 Whelpton decided to focus on the 100m over the triple jump in which he has also excelled at high school. In 2019 he went on to win the New Zealand national under-20 title. [3] [4] He runs for Christchurch Old Boys United. In January 2022 at the Potts Classic he set a personal best 100m time of 10.18 to equal the New Zealand resident record of Joseph Millar, set in 2017. Whelpton equalled it again at the same event in January 2023. [5]
In March 2023, Whelpton won the 100m title at the 2023 New Zealand Track and Field Championships held in Wellington. [6] In May 2023, racing in Yokohama, he lowered his 100m personal best to 10.14 s (+0.4w). [7] He equalled that 6 weeks later in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. He represented New Zealand in the 100 metres at the 2023 World Athletics Championships held in Budapest, Hungary. [8]
Whelpton competed in the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships – Men's 60 metres race and ran a seasons best time of 6.67 seconds. [9]
On 25 January 2025 Whelpton set a new 60m personal best, and 2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships qualifying mark, of 6.50 s (+1. m/s) in finishing second at the ACT Open Athletics championships in Canberra, Australia. [10] This time is superior to the indoor New Zealand 60m record of 6.59 s held by Augustine Nketia, but despite media reports to the contrary, [11] it is not eligible as a New Zealand record as Athletics New Zealand does not recognise the 60m as an outdoor record event, nor does it allow indoor records to be set outdoors. In March 2025, he was named in the New Zealand team for the 2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing. [12]