Athletics: Kaylee youngest in NZ squad

Tauranga Girls' College cross country runner Kaylee Mudgway will represent New Zealand in Australia this month. Photo / File

The opportunity to represent New Zealand at an international meeting has come earlier than expected for Tauranga Girls' College cross country runner Kaylee Mudgway.

The 15-year-old Year 11 student is the youngest athlete named in the NZ Secondary Schools Cross Country team to compete at the 2015 Australian Cross Country Championships, at the famous Mooney Valley Racecourse in Melbourne on August 29.

Kaylee is one of 300 runners competing on the day and the multi-talented athlete admits it is all a bit daunting.

But she is looking forward to the challenge.

"It is the senior team from Year 11 to Year 13, so I am the youngest," she said. "I have no idea of how strong the standard will be, as I don't know any of the Australians running. I just want to have a real strong run."

Kaylee is in good form and training has gone well, ahead of Melbourne. "I like the individual side of the sport and just doing well for yourself," she said.

"I do tri training with the academy with my coach Chris Willett of Perimeter Coaching. We do a lot of speed work, which helps, and he also helps with my track running.

"Michelle Pollard, the cross country coach at Tauranga Girls' has also been so supportive and I could not have made the team without her."

Kaylee gained selection after her impressive performance at the 2015 National Secondary School Cross Country Champs, in Dunedin on July 28.

But she is anything but a one-dimensional athlete.

She is a well-performed triathlete and won race one of the under-16 mountain bike winter series, held last month in Rotorua. Last year she was awarded the Tauranga Girls' College Junior Sportsgirl of the Year award.

Daniel Hintz from Tauranga Boys' College is the other Western Bay student competing in Melbourne.