We just got the result of Miya's music exam.
This year Miya has been working towards her Grade 5 Trinity clarinet exam, and two weeks ago she sat it. It was her first ever music exam (and first ever in our family) so it was a new experience for us all.
The result came in the post, and we were delighted with her mark of 84 (out of 100), which earned her Merit. (Merit is 75-86, and Distinction is 87+.)
Congratulations Miya!
Over the weekend we were down in Inglewood for the New Zealand Secondary Schools Athletics Champs. (And by "we" I mean just Mulan and me; Mama and Miya stayed back home.) This is different from the club national champs, which happen at the end of the season in March.
We left home on Friday morning and arrived back on Sunday evening, the drive each way taking about five hours.
We were there because Mulan had signed up for the junior girls (under 16) 80m hurdles on Saturday morning and triple jump on Sunday morning. (Mulan decided not to compete in the long jump on Friday morning as it clashed with a ballet event happening on Thursday evening.)
It was a very satisfying weekend, with two new PBs (personal bests) in the two events.
First up, into a slight head wind Mulan ran the 80m hurdles in 14.61 seconds. Overall she came 17th out of 22 competitors. What's even more satisfying is that there is still room for improvement; Mulan's main comment was that she jumped too high over the hurdles and this slowed her momentum so she had to add an extra step between the last few hurdles.
Here she is in lane 6, running in the early morning mist:
I didn't get a video of Mulan's triple jump on Sunday, as there were too many people crowding around the runup. You'll just have to trust me that her second jump of 9.70m, also into a slight head wind, was spot on. This earned her 10th place.
But you can see her third jump (which was not so good) on the YouTube livestream. The livestream was focused on the senior competitors, but it just happened to catch Mulan jumping in the background. Having already got 9.70m, Mulan decided to go hard with her final jump, but she slightly twisted her ankle on the hop landing and didn't get a strong jump into the pit. (Her ankle is okay now.)
The competition results are here, and Mulan's personalised results are here.
Saturday was quite busy.
First up, at 8:30am we were in Te Atatu for the Christmas Parade.
West City Youth Concert Band, which Mulan and Miya play in, set up in the park to entertain the crowds. They played one-hour-ish sessions both before and after the parade.
(Mulan's in the flute section on the near side, while Miya is on the far side with the clarinets.)
When it finished at 1pm we headed off to Pakuranga for our usual McKinnon Shield interclub athletics competition. The results are here.
For our first event, Mulan and Miya were in the same 80m hurdles race together. Into a strong head wind they both had pleasing times, with Mulan getting 15.05sec and Miya getting a PB of 16.70sec.
I pushed myself with a 60m sprint (8.64sec) quickly followed by a 100m sprint (13.81sec).
We all then finished off with a triple jump together.
Delightfully, Miya got a new PB of 9.02m while Mulan got a solid 9.41m (again into a head wind). These were good enough to get both Mulan and Miya onto the Auckland ranking lists (they are now on the ranking lists for two events each!). Still recovering from my sprints, I only managed 9.60m.
(At the same time Mulan's two-year-old Under 14 Auckland record of 9.32m was finally beaten; the new record 9.67m could be a challenge for Miya to beat!)
It must have all been too much for me. Arriving home around 6:30pm I had a migraine, which put me out of action for the next 36 hours.
We were at athletics competitions on both Saturday and Sunday.
First up, on Saturday we had the regular McKinnon Shield competition. Mulan and Miya both competed, while I decided to have a rest day. The results are here.
Miya cleared 1.35m in the high jump
and just missed 1.40m:
Mulan got a new wind-assisted PB of 4.59m in the long jump:
Both girls jumped well enough to get onto the latest Auckland ranking lists. Miya's 1.35m is on the Women's Under 14 high jump list, while Mulan's fourth best jump of the day (4.29m) had a legal wind and got on the Women's Under 16 long jump list.
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Then on Sunday Miya competed at the CNW (Central-North-West Auckland) children's interclub relay competition.
Our club, Takapuna, has a lot of competitive girls in Miya's grade (12), and Miya didn't make the team. But we don't have many Grade 14 girls, so Miya was offered a spot to make up the numbers in a fun team.
They competed in the 4x100m relay, 4x400m relay and field relay. Miya did the shot put section of the field relay, getting a new PB of 6.88m. And since there were only three clubs competing in the grade, Miya's team came away with three bronze medals!
On Saturday, once again Mulan, Miya and I competed together at athletics. This time it was the Dick Quax Memorial Meet.
The results are here.
Miya ran her first ever hurdles race -- first time over hurdles on rubber and first time completing a full 80m! For her first race it went pretty well. The big thing for her to work on is getting familiar with the stride lengths between the hurdles. About halfway through the race she had to chop a stride very short to get over a hurdle, and consequently on the next hurdle she was off balance and fell. But she quickly picked herself up and still managed to finish well.
Delightfully, immediately after that Miya got a new PB in the high jump, clearing 1.37m and getting very close to 1.40m. She's also adjusting well to throwing a heavier shot put this season (3kg up from 2kg), and got it out to a solid 6.56m.
Mulan is de-rusting well, getting very pleasing results in her first long jump (4.39m) and hurdles (15.27sec) competitions of the season. What was especially good about the hurdles was that it was into a strong head wind (2.4m/s) yet she kept the momentum going and mostly didn't need to add an extra stride between hurdles.
Finally, I did an okay-ish long jump of 4.88m. The main thing is that I'm still doing something to keep fit, though it's a bit sad to feel the body getting slower and flatter each season. One of the big pleasures of athletics is the feel of speed, and aging takes that away incrementally every year.
Yesterday was a day of firsts for us.
It was our first interclub athletics competition of the season. (Though we've been having clubnights for a few weeks now.)
It was also the first time that 12-year-old Miya has ever competed at a senior competition, not to mention her first proper triple jump competition.
It was also the first time that Mulan, Miya and I have all competed together in the same event and at the same time.
This was the McKinnon Shield competition, and we all signed up for the triple jump.
Miya is newly competing in the "Women Under 14" grade. She had a great start, jumping both well and consistently to get three of her six jumps over 8.70m and a best of 8.76m.
Miya will be in the Under 14 grade until the end of 2023, and if she continues to improve in the triple jump she'll put pressure on the Auckland record of 9.32m (currently held by someone by the name of Mulan Riseborough!).
Mulan was feeling a bit under the weather all day yesterday, but thought she'd have a jump anyway. She was looking very flat and couldn't get much bounce going, only getting 9.02m.
I was also feeling flat (and old), and only managed 9.90m. Really hope I can do better this season and it's not permanent old age deterioration!
The results for all of us are here.
Mulan and Miya's dance school, Mainly Dance Studios, had their end-of-year show last night.
It was a great chance to see some of the other dance styles in action, since often we don't see those other classes. Alongside Mulan and Miya's ballet and contemporary dance, we also saw jazz, tap, hip-hop and musical theatre.
Miya was in two dances (ballet and contemporary), while Mulan was in three (solo contemporary, ballet, and neo-classical).
Finally, each style of dance had three awards presented. Mulan was recognised for most dedicated contemporary dancer, while Miya was recognised for most improved contemporary dancer.
Several weeks ago the girls also did their usual yearly dance exams.
Mulan:
Miya:
