Young medallists can aim for the stars

Young Wairarapa athletes have come home from the North Island Colgate Games with a shining haul of medals.
Track coach Mark Harris said the team of 16 athletes aged from 9 to 14 won three gold, two silver, and four bronze medals at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland over the weekend. A good result for a small team, he said.
"These are age graded competition, so you know where you sit in New Zealand. If you win a medal in your age grade at the North Island champs it basically means you're the best in your age in the country."
"It's kind of like the first step. If they do choose athletics it's the start of a pathway, it's the development toward becoming international athletes."
The team was made up of members of Athletics Masterton and Athletics Carterton.
Mr Harris said the most significant result for the team was Tim Girling-McLean's gold in shot-put. The Masterton 14-year-old had only started training in shot-put relatively recently, and this was his first competition. "He's one of those athletes that gets out and trains really hard, he's grown a lot really quickly, and is coming into his own."
Emma Brown of Masterton won gold in the 12-year-old girls' 1200m speed walking, and Stevie Paine of Masterton won gold in the 14-year-old girls' 800-sprint endurance race.
Also notable was the silver win for the 14-year-old girls' 4 x 100m race, Mr Harris said, as the team was rounded out with an 11 year-old and a 12 year-old to make up numbers, and had placed so well against teams of all 14-year-olds.
"If we can field a team it's pretty hard getting enough runners because it's a high level competition. So that was a massive achievement for them," Mr Harris said.
Maria Taylor of Masterton (sister of cricketer Ross Taylor), won another silver medal in the 13-year-old girls' shot-put.
Mr Harris said the event provided encouragement for young athletes, and was a big social highlight of the year. "It's a good, fun competition; very social. Some of these kids do a lot of training for their age, and they need to see something for it. A lot of them go away with some recognition, so it's quite encouraging for them."
"For these kids the world's their oyster. If they keep having fun and they set their focus there's no reason they couldn't strive for something like the Olympics or the Commonwealth Games."