Auckland Children's Athletics Champs

On Saturday, Mulan and Miya competed at the Auckland Children's Athletics Champs at Mount Smart Stadium.

Covid changed the setup this year, as under the Red Light system everyone needs to keep in bubbles of under 100.  Consequently, they're holding it over four days, and the boys and girls are separated to opposite ends of the stadium.  Saturday was Day 2, and it was just for the 10-14s.

They also restricted spectators to under 100, though as I was officiating at the girls' end shot put I had more freedoms (and a free lunch!).

Sadly, this year there were fewer competitors, though there were still many excellent athletes and impressive performances.  At the shot put we measured three new records (from five grades).

Mulan, competing for the final time as a Grade 14, had a slow start to the day with her four events.  But it picked up at the end with a couple of awesome performances.

First up she did long jump.  Some days go better than others, and this was one of the unlucky days.  She got two no jumps, so on her third and final jump she wisely played it safe to make sure she got a distance in.  Her 4.12m was well short of her usual performances, but gave her enough to earn a bronze medal.  (An average jump for her would have got silver.)

Second, her shot put of 7.77m was average for her, but earned her 5th place.

Third, she got a new PB in the discus, getting it out to a very pleasing 23.07m and earning another 5th place.

Finally, she finished off with a PB of 14.53sec in the 80m hurdles and earned herself another bronze medal.  This was especially pleasing because for the first time she got fewer strides between the hurdles all the way through the race.  Up until now she has had to put in an extra stride between most hurdles, meaning that she mostly had to alternate lead legs.  But this time she had the power to keep going, keep the strides long, and keep the same lead leg for the entire distance.  The end result was that she improved her time by 0.2 seconds.

Miya, competing in Grade 11, was on fire for both her events, and had two new PBs.

Her shot put was a huge 8.30m, earning her 4th place.

Earlier in the week we decided to experiment with Miya's discus style, and she had a go at the spin.  It was starting to work well in practice, so she decided to try it in the comp.  Happily she got a good one in, pushing the discus out to a new PB of 17.58m and earning her 5th place.

The field results are here, and the track result here.

Miya's favourite event, high jump, is happening this Saturday coming, on the fourth and final day of the competition.