Next Kiwi golden girl aims for Olympics

Siositina Hakeai, 16, holds the NZ junior discus record and is tipped to be the next Valerie Adams in field athletics. Photo / Natalie Slade

She is 16 years old, 1.82m tall, number one in the world for discus throwers her age and tipped to be the next Valerie Adams in field athletics.

She dreams of standing on the podium at the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games with the New Zealand national anthem playing in the background.

Siositina Hakeai hopes she will one day win gold - as Adams did in the shot put at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi to go with her gold from the Beijing Olympics in 2008 - and she is well on her way.

Her 51.52m throw has shattered New Zealand junior records.

She was the youngest female ever to be selected when she went to the world junior championships in July.

And while she was warming up, Hakeai broke the NZ under-17 discus record with her 51.52m throw.

She has also become the youngest NZ female to reach a world junior final, at the age of 16 years, 3 months.

Hakeai, the world No 1 among throwers under 17, has met her hero Adams - a moment she describes as "awesome".

"I was like, 'Woah! I'm standing next to an Olympic gold medallist'," said the girl from Mangere.

"My next goal is to get to the next Olympics. Then at the Olympics after that, it's to get on to the podium."

Hakeai is being helped by the Throw for Gold programme, launched by the Find Your Field of Dreams Foundation.

The programme was set up by Sir John Walker, who is best known for being the first person to run the mile in under 3m 50s, with his time of 3:49.4 breaking the world record by more than 1.5s.

The programme aims to help young people who have big dreams in field athletics and hopes to find in Manukau the next Valerie Adams or Stuart Farquhar, the javelin silver medallist in Delhi.

Hakeai's coach of 2 years, Nigel Edwards, said she will "definitely" be the next Adams. "She's a rare talent. Talent like this doesn't come along very often."

He said when Beatrice Faumuina met Hakeai, the double Commonwealth Games discus champion whispered to her: "You will replace me."

Edwards believes that by the time she turns 18, Hakeai will be a professional athlete.

Adams' coach, Didder Poppe, said he was very impressed with Hakeai and thinks she will certainly be at the next Commonwealth Games.

"At the junior champs, she was the most impressive and the youngest on the field.

"She just needs to improve her technique and conditioning."

Seven universities in the US have offered Hakeai scholarships, but they do not appeal to her because she gets homesick easily. "I'd miss my mum and dad too much."

She first realised she was "pretty good" at throwing when she picked up a discus at the age of 12, and has been training ever since.

She trains four times a week, for a total of almost 24 hours, which she finds difficult to balance with her Year 11 work from Auckland Girls Grammar School.