Just before I sit down to chat with Dean Neofitou, I realise he’s been out running in 35 degree heat.

Determination is an understatement for the 16-year-old athletics star.

Running is his life, and he doesn’t find it a challenge when he has higher stakes in mind.
Dean is one of the most consistently successful youth runners in Australia, achieving state titles every single year since he was nine. His personal best in the 100 meters is 12 seconds, and just recently set his personal best time of 4.03 minutes in the 1500 meters.
At the age of 14, he became the junior Australian champion, an astonishing achievement.

All his hard work and determination is now focused on the Junior World Athletics Championships in the Ukraine this year. Qualifiers in Australia are in March, and Dean is rearing to go.
He’s tentatively optimistic, but with two months to go, there’s still a lot of work to do.

“I’m getting there,” he tells Neos Kosmos. “I’ve still got till March to qualify, so hopefully I’ll get there in time. My fitness is getting there, my speed is getting there. We’ll see what happens.”

He has to beat out tough completion in Australia to secure his place in the Ukraine competition.
His love of sport was definitely a family affair, with his sister and father also competing in athletics.
His father, Spiro has continued his love of athletics with his son, and even races a couple times a year when he gets the chance.
“I still do it now,” he says. “I’m nearly 47, and I still compete in Athletics when my son’s down there. When there’s a senior competition I run as well in the over 40 competition.”

Dean was an avid sportsman from a very young age, trying his hand at swimming, football and athletics.
But, after an injury playing AFL, he quickly stuck to track and field.

Asking him about his emotions during a competition, he is modest.

“The lead up to the event, I get a bit nervous, but I just get very excited before the race. And then after if I win, it’s an extra bonus,” he says.

One of his favourite feelings is the final moments of a race. The adrenaline spikes, the wind lashes at his face, and he knows it is now or never.

‘It’s very exciting, especially the last 100 meters. If I’m right next to the leader or if I’m in the lead myself, it’s just a great feeling,” he says.

His prowess has seen offers of scholarships to some of Melbourne’s most prestigious schools, but his family hasn’t taken up the offers, preferring to give Dean a local upbringing, without the pressures of commuting hours to and from their house in Research (near Eltham).

The teenager is now going into the last two years of high school, and finds it quite difficult at times to juggle training and homework.

“It’s very hard. I have to manage my time, pretty much down to the last minute,” he says about his schedule.

“When I come home, I have to eat just before running. And then get stuck into my homework. Then go straight to running, then finish my homework.”

He is optimistic he’ll follow a career in the sporting world, whether he becomes a professional track and field athlete, or goes down the route of studying sports science at university.

His father’s patriotism can be seen in his hopes for his son, revealing “between you and me, if he doesn’t make it for Australia, he’ll be running in a blue and white singlet or I’ll take him to Cyprus”.

Dean is half Greek and half Cypriot, and has kept a close eye on Greek sport. At the age of eight, he witnessed the famed Greek win of the Euro cup in 2004.

“When Greece won the Euro, he was just a boy and we had gone to see it at Victoria Gardens and the first thing we did was jump in the car and go down Lonsdale street and wave our Greek flags.He had his face painted in the Greek blue and white colours,” his father says.

That excitement and his inclusive upbringing have made him into the modest and exemplary young man he is today. His competitive nature never outweighs the love of the sport and the fun of competing.

“It not all about the winning, it’s all about the excitement of the competition,” Dean says.

His aim is to finish in the top two and run a world qualifying time at the Perth Championship in March.
The Junior World Athletics Championships will be held in July in the Ukraine.
The family is open to sponsorship if Dean qualifies to help him get to Europe.