Kyle Cranston sets national record for the Summer Universiade decathlon | Photos

The competition in Taipei spanned two days where the Australian Catholic University (ACU) student, walking into the Games ranked 12^th out of 19, sealed gold with his 4:42:08 time for the 1500m race. 

He also set a new personal record for four of the 10 events and scored a total of 7523 points.

Juuso Antero Hassi of Finland (7566) won silver and Aaron Booth of New Zealand (7523) took out the bronze medal. 

The heats included long jump, shot put, high jump, hurdles, pole vault and javelin. 

Cranston was selected to compete in the games earlier this year. This is the second major competition he has participated in, following the same 2015 competition. 

“I didn’t think I was going to win, originally I was ranked 12^th,” he said. “I’ve done quite well to come away with gold.” 

Over the past 12 months Cranston has been self coached. He said the transition allowed him to improve and take control of his training style. 

“It was very hard conditions conditions, there were long days,” he said. “My opponents were more experienced than me, I definitely felt like a small fish in a big pond.” 

Cranston has now set his sights on the Commonwealth Games.

Initially set to compete in the B standard, he hopes to get the chance to bump up to the A standard, citing the maturity as an athlete over the past few years. 

As a teenager, Cranston attended Trinity Catholic College and before that, was part of the Goulburn Mulwaree Athletics.

“Every now and then athletes comes through who develop a passion for the sport and have a talent for it,” committee member Cathey Stanberg said.

“Sadly those athletes who aspired to follow Kyle’s footsteps have moved on from little athletics but he is still alive within the club.”

She said the whole club passes their congratulations to Cranston. 

He is now studying Exercise and Sports Science at ACU and lives in Sydney.