Schaef ‘thrilled’ with PM’s award

Carterton athlete Ellen Schaef is "thrilled to bits" to have been awarded a Prime Minister's Athlete Scholarship.
Schaef, 18, is one of just over 400 athletes across national sports organisations to receive this scholarship in 2009.
A Government initiative managed by the New Zealand Academy of Sport, the goal of the programme is to assist talented
and elite athletes achieve tertiary and vocational qualifications while pursuing excellence in sport.
The programme pays fees of up to $10,000 a year and a living allowance of up to $6000 a year to successful scholarship recipients, dependent on the athlete's sporting performance and study load.
Schaef showed herself to be among the country's up-and-coming athletes when she won the silver medal in the women's 19yrs 400m event at the New Zealand track and field championships in Wellington this year, having won the same race in 2008.
That followed a second placing over the
same distance at the Black Singlet invitational meet in Auckland against open competition.
Understandably, Schaef was delighted
with the progress she made last season but she is thirsting for even bigger success next summer when she will again focus on the 400m.
And to that end she is currently following a training regime mapped out by her Masterton coach Mark Harris, which has her working on increasing her stamina and strength.
Among Schaef's ambitions for next season are the lowering of her pb for the 400m of 57.21secs and the regaining of her national women's 19yrs title, and she is also keen to again represent her country, something she did at the Pacific School Games in Australia late last year.