John Delamere

John Delamere represented New Zealand in the 1974 Christchurch Commonwealth Games, but won much more fame later in his life when he was Tuariki John Delamere, the politician.

He was born in 1951 at a military hospital in Papakura, and attended Tauranga Boys’ College. In 1967 and 1969, he was recognised as the top Maori student in the country.

He then attended Washington State University on an athletics scholarship and gained a Bachelor of Arts in 1974. Later he earned a Master of Business Administration from Long Island University.

Delamere served in the United States Army from 1974-78 and was then appointed chief financial officer for Polynesian Airlines.

He was a busy young man, because in those years he also became a leading athlete – in the long jump and triple jump - who gained fame for one piece of innovative thinking.

At the Christchurch Commonwealth Games, he was far from his best, or as he described it: “I jumped like a turkey.” He was 9th in the long jump with 7.31m, and in the triple jump, his 14.23m placed him 13th.

His best legal long jump was 7.79m in Los Angeles in 1974, still 7th on the New Zealand all-time list. In the triple jump, his best legal effort was 15.52m in the US in 1974, now 10th on the all-time list.

A few months after the Christchurch Games, he created headlines by pioneering the technique of a full somersault in the long jump. After a few weeks’ practice, he tried out the flip in a meet at the Coliseum in Los Angeles.

After talking to the biomechanics professor at Washington State, he’d experimented with somersaulting landing in a pole vault pit. Moving on to sand was a big step for someone who’d never done a somersault in his life. The Pac-8 meet at the Los Angeles Coliseum in May was the first time he’d jumped since being laid up with a back injury from landing on his backside too many times.

After overstepping the mark on his first attempt, he landed feet first on his second attempt, his heels touching down at about 8.40m. “I didn’t really know what I was doing in terms of somersaulting, and I fell back to 7.70m,” he said. If he hadn’t fallen back, the jump would have set a new NCAA record.

Delamere got only one more chance to somersault in competition before the end of the season, and when the next season rolled around the flip had been banned by the IAAF for being too dangerous, unlike high jumper Dick Fosbury’s revolutionary Fosbury Flop.

Decades later, Delamere shrugged when asked why he decided to do a flip into the sandpit: “Athletes do dumb-ass things if it improves their performance.”

Delamere entered the political arena in 1996 when he successfully stood as a New Zealand First candidate in the Te Tai Rawhiti electorate, beating Sir Peter Tapsell and becoming one of a group known as the Tight Five. He was appointed to Cabinet as part of the New Zealand First coalition arrangement with National, and was Minister of Immigration and Minister of Pacific Island Affairs.

In 1998, the coalition broke up. Delamere supported the National Party government and resigned from New Zealand First.

Before the 1999 election, Delamere joined the small Maori Te Tawharau party, giving it its first representation in Parliament. He contested the new Waiariki electorate and placed 2nd.

In July 2020, more than 20 years later, Delamere stood for office again, for The Opportunities Party, but garnered relatively few votes in that year’s election.

After leaving Parliament, Delamere established himself as an immigration consultant, founding the company of Tuariki Delamere & Associates. He also owned a cabaret restaurant in Auckland, Finale Restaurant and Cabaret.