Regional selectors impressed with Bay’s young athletes
When the Takaka Amateur Athletics Club came out of recess three seasons ago, a new generation of champion athletes was predicted. Those predictions seem to be coming true.
Three Golden Bay athletes, Chris Lines, Courtney Clarke and April Crawford, will represent the Tasman region at this weekend’s national athletics championships in Wellington.
Their dramatic progress this season has impressed regional selectors from over the Hill. The athletes’ coaches are all confident that their charges will continue to improve.
Chris Lines (16) is a discus and javelin thrower. Three months ago, his personal best (PB) javelin throw measured about 40 metres. Today his PB is a smidgen under 50 metres. Chris credits much of his improvement to his coach, Dale Pritchard, a Nelson javelin-thrower who has taken an interest in Chris’s career since Athletics Nelson put them in touch.
“Chris has a great physique for javelin-throwing, so that’s a start,’ said Dale. “But the thing that’s helped him to improve so much in the last while is his ability to listen and learn. If you give him a tip about technique he’s able to make changes straight away. He’s got a lot of potential. If he can keep that improvement going on the day in Wellington, he could throw a new PB and that would make him a medal contender. If he came home with a medal I’d be stoked.”
Chris said he has entered in the under-16 and under-19 discus and javelin at the nationals. “It’ll be great experience for me. You have up times and down times, and, right now, I’m having an up time with javelin. I think I can improve some more. If I do it in Wellington, I think there could be a chance of a top-three finish.”
The GB Weekly has written about discus thrower Courtney Clarke before. In November 2007 her PB was 27.5 metres. Now, as a 14-year-old, Courtney can throw the discus 34.30 metres. Courtney threw her latest PB in the Mahar Cup inter-club event early in February and she says she is still improving. She will compete in the under-16 grade in Wellington.
“I’m training harder and I’ve had some help from Tony Aikenhead, a great throwers’ coach. I go over to Motueka to work with him when I can. He’s been helping me to get across the circle better and use more of the circle. The rest of the time I work with Buddha Childs. He’s helped me to improve a lot,” said Courtney. “I really thrive on competition, so I often do my best at the big events. It’s easier to throw well when you’re concentrating more.”
Tony said that Courtney was likely to keep improving. “She’s very coachable,” he said. “She listens and takes advice. If she threw 35 metres-plus at the nationals, she’d be a medal prospect.”
Greg Lautenslager is a coach with Athletics Nelson who has guided Nelson athletes to 23 national titles. He took on April Crawford (16) to help her to maximise her obvious talent as a middle-distance runner when April began winning races at regional meetings.
April says she is running better all the time. She will compete in the under-16 girls’ 800 and 1500 metres at the nationals this weekend.
“My PB in the 1500 metres was about 5 mins 30 secs at the start of the season, but I’m down to 5 mins 01 secs now. There’ll be girls in my grade at the nationals who can run about 20 seconds faster than me at the moment. I’m kind of nervous about lining up against these really serious athletes, but I love competing and I’d like to improve my best times in both events.”
“Talent-wise, April’s got it,” said Greg. “She lives at Craigieburn, like Courtney, and that’s kind of isolated. It’s difficult to coach by correspondence, but April is a joy to work with and she’s definitely still improving. Young athletes need three things: some talent, some coaching help and very supportive parents. These great Golden Bay kids have got all three.”
Neil Wilson
