By george he can run, even when tired

George Hewitt was fighting the urge to fall to sleep in the lead-up to his 800m event at the Australian Youth Paralympic Games in Melbourne last week.
Exhausted by the combination of his bronze-medal winning effort in the 200m earlier in the day and a hot sun the 13-year-old Rathkeale College third former from Pahiatua, who has cerebal palsy, was feeling, in his own words, "really stuffed".
Naturally enough then it was anything but a super-confident Hewitt who made his way to the starting line but once the gun fired it was an entirely different story.
Not only did Hewitt take out the gold medal for the boys under-14 section but his time of 3mins 50secs was a mind-boggling 40secs faster than he had ever run before.
"I felt good all the way through, I wasn't sure what time I had done but I sort of thought it was probably the best yet," the typically under-stated Hewitt said. "I enjoyed it, it didn't seem too hard."
His 800m win was not the first success for Hewitt at the Melboune meet where he was part of a small but powerful New Zealand team. The previous day he had won the 400m gold medal as well as finishing fifth in the 100m.
Reflecting on his 400m victory he said he started off a bit slower than he wanted to but finished strongly and there was no excuses for his 100m placing other than he "didn't go fast enough" That didn't surprise Hewitt though as he much prefers the longer distances because they give him more time to hit top speed. "The sprints are over too quickly for me," he said.
Buoyed by his two gold and one bronze medals Hewitt is understandably looking forward to his next two major assignments, the New Zealand Disability Games in Wellington in mid-November and the national secondary schools championships in Timaru in early December.
Like his Masterton-based coach Mark Harris he is convinced there is still plenty of improvement to come with techniques to be honed to build both his speed and stamina. "I know I can get better if I keep working at it," he said. "And training is good fun, I don't mind that at all."