Paralympian #234 Mitch Joynt made an excellent Paralympic debut by finishing an excellent sixth in the Men’s 200m T64 final at Paris 2024. We take a step back in time to identify the unorthodox training venue which kick-started his Para athletics journey.
It might take a large leap to connect the dots between an anonymous stretch of Warkworth pathway adjacent to State Highway 1 and the cavernous Stade de France in Paris but that has been the unlikely journey undertaken by Para sprinter Mitch Joynt.
For it was on that unremarkable 100m long pathway where the Kiwi made the first tentative steps on his Para athletics quest, which last year reached a high point when making his Paralympic debut at Paris 2024.
Sustaining a workplace accident in 2013 which led to a below-the-knee leg amputation, Mitch tried a range of Para sports and a number of Para athletics events before focusing on sprinting. Living in Warkworth at the time, Mitch viewed the nearby pathway as a pragmatic training solution.
“At that time, I was working full-time until 6pm so getting down to AUT Millennium (situated on Auckland’s North Shore) to train was not feasible most nights,” he recalls.
“This location (the pathway) was a two-minute walk away (from where I lived) and is good because it’s a good surface, flat and there are no driveways along this stretch, which meant I didn’t have to give way to cars. It was the perfect fit for what I needed at that time. I was brand new to athletics, I didn’t know how far I would go, it just seemed like a good place to cut my teeth in the sport.”
It was a steep learning curve for Mitch. Coming from a distance running background he had to become accustomed to running with the blade at a faster pace. For the Kiwi to improve his sprinting mechanics required much repetition in training.
“To many people watching sprint drills are weird, really weird when you are bad at them. I felt a little bit of shame, and I definitely didn’t want to make eye contact with any of the drivers going past!”
For 18 months Mitch would carry out several sessions a week along the pathway before opting to move to the Hibiscus Coast.
In much closer proximity to AUT Millennium and stepping up his commitment to the sport the pathway by State Highway 1 quickly became redundant as a training option.
However, he will always harbour a deep affinity with his primary training location.
“Being back here brings back many emotions,” he says. “It is cool to think just a week earlier I was competing at the Eugene Diamond League (where he sat a national men’s 200m T64 record of 22.86).”
If Warkworth was truly where it all began for 30-year-old Mitch, then the 400m track at AUT Millennium has provided “a second home” for so much of his career. Some of his earliest memories of training there involved 400m and 800m sessions alongside Keegan Pitcher, a 2017 World Para Athletics double bronze medallist, before later specialising in the 100m and 200m.
Devoting seven days a week at the venue either training or coaching he says he spends what feels “like half his life” at the venue in Rosedale on Auckland’s North Shore. Yet he acknowledges the pivotal role it has played in his rise to become a Paralympian and two-time World Championship 200m T64 bronze medallist.
“I don’t think I would have been into athletics without this place,” he explains. “It is the only track this side of the (Auckland Harbour) Bridge and if I had to travel over the bridge, it would have been a hard sport for me to stick at and reach the level I have. Having these facilities is paramount to where I am today.”
