Runner on right track to 2016 Olympics

Stevie Paine has lofty ambitions.

The young Wairarapa College middle distance runner wants to be part of the New Zealand track squad at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and is using this season as an important step along the way.

Under the guidance of her new coach Tony Rogers, Paine has been steadily building up her stamina and confidence and recent results suggest she is heading in the right direction.

The first meet of the 2011-12 season saw Paine travel to Inglewood in Taranaki for a central league competition and she was delighted to win the 400m in a time of 60.02secs.

Paine also contested the 1500m, which was actually the very next race, and while the main object was to simply get a feel for the longer distance she still managed to be first home in 5mins 35.2secs.

A busy meet for Paine ended with the 200m and there she was second against older opposition in the 19yrs grade in a commendable 27.94secs.

The following weekend saw Paine at a track meet in Wellington where she was pleased with her second placing in the 800m in 2mins 25.25secs and she improved on that effort at the second of the central league meetings in Wanganui seven days later where she won in 2mins 25.25secs. She raced over 200m there too, placing second in 27.94secs.

The Wanganui meet also gave the exciting Wairarapa College quartet of Paine, April Campbell, Molly Creagh and Laura McKenna the chance to tune themselves up for next month's national secondary schools championships 4x100m relay and they clocked an impressive 51.09secs.