Heroes helping young hopefuls

A who's who of Northland sport joined forces to help 30 young athletes move closer to achieving their goals, at the Northland Future Champions Academy.
The academy has been the dream of triathlete Sam Warriner and her husband Stephen Bradley for a while now, and after organising a two-day workshop for Year 7-9 students in time for the July school holidays, the programme has been a huge hit, Warriner says.
"The idea behind the academy is to identify, support and maximise the development of Northland's future elite athletes. These students have plenty of talent but we need to give them the tools to bridge the gap from being a good athlete to an athlete competing at the top of their sport," she explained.
Northland had people and resources to assist budding athletes, and Warriner had called on friends who offered input to the students. Warriner's fellow Sport and Recreation New Zealand Ambassador Cory Hutchings was invited to share his experience and knowledge on goal setting. The former world surf lifesaving Ironman champion also ran a pool session at Whangarei Aquatic centre for the swimmers in the group. Marathon runner Ady McKenzie educated the students on nutrition and hydration, while athletics coach Ian Babe ran a session on speed for sport. Northland Men's hockey coach Mike Delaney spoke about overcoming diversity in sport, while fitness trainer Jon Renes covered core strength and Lorraine Barton taught the group about recovery.
"We wanted to show these young athletes that Northland is a great area with great resources to offer, and if they can achieve in their chosen sport up here, they can achieve anywhere ... they can achieve internationally, they just need that support behind them," she said.
Warriner said there was potential within the athletes, and she was impressed with their preparation, and ability to absorb the information at the academy course, which concluded yesterday .
The academy team hopes to continue working with young athletes once they evaluate their work so far.