Tassie teen claims fastest boy mantle

He's Australia's new fastest boy.

On an overcast Hobart afternoon Jack Hale, 16, set a lightning 10.44sec over 100 metres to surpass the national under-18 record set 23 years ago.

The unassuming schoolboy, whose key event is long jump, shaved 0.02sec from the Australian under-18 record and credits a regime of box jump training for his new-found speed.

"I've started doing them about three months ago and I've been doing them three times a week, weighted box jumps, I think they have really helped me," Hale told the ABC following his Wednesday sprint.

Already linked to Athletics Australia's under-age training program for long jump, Hale has been hopeful of a place at the 2015 World Youth Championships but is now also tipped to qualify for the 100m.

Junior high performance manager Sara Mulkearns said Hale's record was a surprise.

"We didn't think he was that quick," she told AAP.

"With that performance, based on recent (international) results, he'd be looking at a fourth place at world juniors."

United States sprinter Trayvon Bromell, aged 18, set a new junior 100m world record time of 9.97sec in June.