Leah Powick, running on the left for Christchurch Old Boys United, in the 200m sprint at Christchurch in February - she was placed second.
Leah Powick, running on the left for Christchurch Old Boys United, in the 200m sprint at Christchurch in February - she was placed second.
Pic: BTG260721LEAH2 Caption: Leah Powick, running on the left for Christchurch Old Boys United, in the 200m sprint at Christchurch in February- she was placed second.
Pic: BTG260721LEAH3 Caption: Leah with her bronze medal for the relay at NZ Track and Field Championships (nationals) in Hastings at the end of March, competing for Canterbury.
By Steve Carle
Leah Powick, 18-year-old from Pahiatua, has been granted two scholarships to attend Concordia Irvine University in Southern California. They are a track and field scholarship and an academic scholarship (a four-year degree.)
Presently in Pahiatua, Leah heads out on August 15 - she will be one hour away from Los Angeles, 10km from Newport Beach and 40 minutes away from Disneyland in Anaheim.
It won't be her first time away from New Zealand, she has been to Australia twice, the first time with her family and the second by herself for a Koru Tour in 2016 for 10 days to play basketball.
Leah with her bronze medal for the relay at New Zealand Track and Field Championships (nationals) in Hastings at the end of March, competing for Canterbury.
"I'll be in touch with my family with facetime, when my parents were at university, they communicated by letters or coins in phones from Massey University," said Leah. " Mum came from Paraparaumu and dad from Dargaville."
Leah will study for a Kinesiology Degree in the field of fitness and wellness - the study of the human body, how it performs and works together, human anatomy, nutrition and psychology.
When she arrives at Concordia Irvine, she will be part of their track and field team, competing in athletics competitions. She will be sprinting in the 400m and 200m category and is likely to be running in the relay team. It's possible she could compete in the triple jump and long jump disciplines.
Leah emailed her coaches before April last year and was going to do a track tour in California doing athletics competitions there. "It would have enabled me to meet the coaches in person and look at the universities while they watched me compete. That's when Covid-19 happened, so it didn't go ahead," said Leah.
So instead, she filmed videos of herself training and sent them to the coaches. "It allowed them to see my technique and the effort I was putting in," she said.
"I received an academic as well as a track and field scholarship. There's a lot of paperwork that is involved. I had to submit my results from Tararua College and had to go down to Hutt Valley and sit a SAT test, a bit like NCEA. I had to submit a grade point average (GPA) for each year of high school attendance and overall GPA.
"Last year I left Tararua College and went to Christchurch at the end of January, studying at the New Zealand Institute of Sport. I did a five-month personal training certificate course. This helped with my Concordia Irvine application, showing a willingness to learn, it complements the degree.
"There is so much more that comes with studying over there. Concordia Irvine has a good reputation, it's well respected. There are 2000 students attending.
"I know one girl from Hamilton who is already at Concordia Irvine, we met at the New Zealand Track & Field Nationals two years ago and a basketballer from Christchurch going over to play basketball there," she said.
"At the New Zealand Track & Field Nationals this year, I was placed fifth in the 400m under 20's in my first season running the 400m - gaining a personal best time, which was great to send over to my coaches. I had never trained for it until that season.
"I've been competing for Canterbury, whereas previously it was for Manawatu. In the relay team for Canterbury I competed in the 4 x 100m relay and we finished third for under 20s and in the 4 x 400m relay we were third in the under 20s.
"All the way through high school I've been a dual athlete: track and field in the summer and basketball in the winter.
"Going over to USA I'll just be focusing on one sport, track and field sprinting as a specialist event. They may be keen to try me having some jumps (long and triple) which I quite like.
"At M.I.S.S.A. (Manawatu Inter-Secondary School Athletics) I finished second last year while winning both 100m and 200m sprints for Under 16s for two years prior to that. In 2019 I was second in the triple jump for Under 16's with no prior training.
"Concordia Irvine University is a university that can offer track and field, academic and Christian values - three in one is pretty awesome. Faith is one of the most important boxes to tick as I am a Christian," she said.
