More athletics

 I had to record this one!

Yesterday, we were back at Mt Smart Stadium doing more athletics.  Mulan competed in the discus, 80m hurdles and triple jump, while I decided to give the triple jump a go.

Our results are here.

Firstly, and least importantly, me.  Off an 8-stride runup I triple jumped 10.50m.  I'm pretty happy with that, considering I haven't jumped for a couple of years.  If I can strengthen up my knees and ankles I may be able to go off a longer runup, get more speed, and get a bit further.  I see the Auckland record for over 45-year-olds is only 11.27m, so if I trained a bit that's not far off.

And Mulan.

We were hugely delighted with Mulan's triple jump.  In her first ever competition, and off a 10-stride runup, she got 9.53m.

To give some comparison, at the 2019 Auckland secondary schools champs that would have got her second place.  Covid meant there was no 2020 Auckland secondary school champs, but (if homeschoolers were allowed to compete at inter-schools!) Mulan would have dominated the North Harbour schools zone competition back in March (first place was 8.46m).

Mulan's still very young for triple jump, and we don't want any injuries, so it's all very casual at this stage.  The only triple jumping Mulan had done previous to this competition was a couple of training sessions to figure out the steps and runup.  For now we'll keep things going the same way, and just do the occasional competition for fun and see what happens.

Mulan also tried an 80m hurdles race for the first time ever yesterday.  She did it in 15.42s, so not too bad.  It was smooth in parts, but there's lots of room for improvement with getting the steps between the hurdles consistent.

And finally (actually it was first up yesterday), Mulan threw the 1kg discus for the first time in competition.  This season she's moving up from 750g, and so the heavier weight is a new challenge.  But it wasn't a bad first effort, getting 17.62 from a standing throw (her spin throw on her third attempt wobbled a bit!).

(This morning, as I write this, I'm a bit stiff and achy from my few jumps yesterday!)