Now 31, Henry has won his first senior national title in the same event, on the same track – Auckland’s Trusts Arena – at the national track and field championships on Sunday.
“That’s a special kind of link back (to) that national junior title,” he said.
“I can't believe that’s 14-years-ago now, that’s the only other national title I’ve had."
He said his first senior gold medal at a national championships has been a long time coming.
“It’s taken several years and there’s been a lot of adversity, but it’s great to finally have some success after all the hard work.”
Since his junior title in 2012, Henry has won six silver and three bronze medals in various senior events, including the hurdles, pole vault and decathlon.
Four of those silvers came finishing second in the hurdles to Auckland’s Josh Hawkins, who won every national title from 2015-24.
Hawkins false-started in Sunday’s race.
“It’s been a real battle between myself and Josh Hawkins over the past decade, really,” said Henry.
“It’s great to finally snatch the gold and get the win.”
Henry tore his calf in September and was in a moon boot for a month in the lead-up to the season.
After making his return to interclub competitions in January he took out the hurdles races at the Canterbury Championships and International Track Meet at Ngā Puna Wai in February.
“Coming back from that, to have the season I’ve had with minimal build-up in that spring-summer period, it’s been a really positive outcome. It’s gone really well.”
While his best event is the hurdles, Henry is a decathlete – competing in up to 10 events at any given meet.
He finished third in the pole vault at the weekend and was also seventh in the long jump.
Henry said he was ready for the New Zealand Combined Events Championships in Auckland next weekend, where he will attempt to qualify for the Commonwealth Games.
“I want to represent New Zealand. I want to get the most out of what I have for the rest of my career,” he said.
“I need to score 7750, which is the decathlon score, that’s the B standard. We’re going to give it our best crack.”
Decathletes are assigned a score for each event depending on how well they perform, with the scores added up at the end. Henry’s personal-best for a competition is 7047.
He said it would be a long shot but he was optimistic.
“We’re going to give it our best effort, and what happens, happens.
“(I’m) just going to focus on performances and the numbers will come.”
