Ryan Bridge: Our biggest ever athletics team heading to Paris - and it's quite exciting

Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

Hamish Kerr - you might recall the name.

He's a high jumper, winning gold at the Commonwealth Games, but so far no Olympic medal.

He's apparently looking very good for Paris - the opening ceremony kicks off this Saturday morning.

I'm getting quite excited about it.

So Kerr is peaking at just the right time - he's just taken out the men’s high jump title at the London Diamond League Athletics meet.

He cleared 2.3m - incredible stuff.

He also won in Monaco earlier this month, where he cleared 2.33m and equalled his personal best in an outdoor event.

The men’s high jump begins on August 8th for us. The opening ceremony is this Saturday morning 5:30am our time, with its peak at 7:30am for their sunset.

Anyway, I just love this. Our biggest ever athletics team heading to Paris.

There's nothing like sitting down on the couch, for hours on end, with some bikkies and a cup of tea watching these incredibly disciplined, unbelievably skilled and fit athletes perform for the world.

It's almost like because what you're watching is athletic and captivating you don't feel lazy for essentially watching hours of television.

There's something incredibly emotional about the Games too, there's always tears and joy and exhaustion.

It's humans dedicating themselves to something for years, for their life, and knowing all of that comes down to just a few seconds in a race or game or event.

It's perseverance and dedication on full display and I just love it.

To Hamish Kerr, the record 17 athletics athletes, and the entire team of 195 Kiwis wearing the fern in Paris - good luck. We'll all be watching.

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