Crack Wairarapa sprinter Laura McKenna has been selected in a New Zealand 4x100m relay senior women's squad to take on their Australian counterparts in Sydney next week.
Indications are the race will be staged on one of the evening sessions at the Australian junior track and field championships where McKenna willbe one of four Wairarapa athletes competing for the first Oceania under-18 team, along with middle distance athlete Stevie Paine, shot putter Tim Girling-McLean and hammer thrower Alex Fafeita.
McKenna, 15, is the top-ranked women's 16-years age group sprinter in the country with a fastest time of 12.53secs, registered when she took out the national secondary schools junior title last December. She also placed third in the 200m final there.
The relay has been organised to allow the Australian quartet an opportunity to register a time good enough to qualify them for this year's world championships and McKenna is part of a Kiwi squad that includes Andrea Miller (Otago), Anna Smythe (Otago), Hazel Bowring-Scott (Tasman) and MacKenzie Keenan (Canterbury).
Miller was a bronze medallist in the 100m hurdles at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, Smythe is the national senior women's 100m title holder, Bowring-Scott is the Canterbury champion over 100m and the New Zealand secondary schools 400m gold medallist and Keenan is the country's No1-ranked women's 16-years runner in the 100m and 400m hurdles.
The selection of McKenna was labelled yesterday by her coach, Masterton-based Mark Harris, as a real "feather in the cap" for the Wairarapa College fifth former,
"It's huge recognition for such a young athlete and underlines the standing she already has at the highest levels," he said. "It's a huge ask but she doesn't mind pressure, she will handle it fine."
Harris said the four runners to represent New Zealand probably wouldn't be decided until a day or two before race day but he was "pretty confident "McKenna would be among them.
"She's got the form on the board and I'd imagine that will count in her favour," he said.
