Bella Earl's unbeaten winter running season was capped off with a great 36-second win in the under-16 girls' four-kilometre race at the NZ Road Race Championships on Sunday. Photo / Supplied
Bella Earl's unbeaten winter running season was capped off with a great 36-second win in the under-16 girls' four-kilometre race at the NZ Road Race Championships on Sunday. Photo / Supplied
Northland running prodigy Bella Earl has completed a stellar winter season with four wins from four big races.
Earl, 14, earned her latest win at the New Zealand Road Race Championships in South Auckland on Sunday, when she finished first by 36 seconds (about 200 metres) in the four-kilometre under-16 road race.
The road title adds to her list of achievements this year which included a North Island secondary schools junior girls' 1500m race win, a Year 9 3km secondary school cross country championship win and a 4km under-16 national cross country win last month.
Fourteen-year-old Earl (third from the left) lines up on Sunday just before the starting gun goes off. Photo / Supplied
Most of her races were won by similar margins which showed how dominant Earl was in her age-group. Under the tutelage of Northland running legend Ian Babe, Earl was able to beat the heat on Sunday to come out on top.
"I wanted to come first, I just kept going in the front, I pushed the pace," Earl said.
The young runner (right), coached by Northland athletics legend Ian Babe, has been ahead of the pack all season. Photo / Supplied
The Whangārei Girls' High School student put her success down to the vital learnings she had made through the different training methods and venues elected by Babe.
"I've learned quite a bit [through] circuit training and swimming pool running."
Earl said her water-based training had really helped her with her running this year. Photo / File
Now, facing a small break which included a brief family holiday to Rarotonga, Earl said she would be both happy and sad to be taking a rest from consistent training.
Babe, who first started coaching Earl in early 2017, said the runner's results spoke for themselves.
"[Earl] is undefeated in two years, she's had some excellent [races]," he said.
"She loves to run, that's one of the key things with her."
Babe (left) said Earl's maturity and commitment to training had been impressive. Photo / File
Babe, 82, said Earl's race on Sunday was a textbook example of her race knowledge and management.
"When [Earl] starts her races, she knows that [the other runners] are going to go out strong and when the pace drops, she just keeps going and keeps the pressure on because [other runners] don't like that.
"We try to coach so that the athlete is confident in the training that they've done so they can be confident enough to run aggressively, and that's how Bella has run all her races and winning them by wide margins really."
Since the beginning of Babe and Earl's training partnership about two years ago, the young runner has realised her great potential. Photo / File
A number of New Zealand athletics coaches were in attendance on Sunday and according to Babe, they expressed great interest in Earl's development. Babe said Earl was thriving in training and had a bright future as long as her passion for running continued.
"She's showing all the attributes you need when you're [that age], so as long as she loves it, I'll keep helping her."
