RIVER Melia used to be a kid who set up and ran hurdles in a Delungra paddock or along the road. He coached himself with help from his older brother Jaylen, always setting the bar a bit higher with every run.
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He still is that kid, but now the 13-year-old Macintyre High School student is winning at a national level.
Melia just returned from the 2014 Australian All Schools Championships in Adelaide over December 5-7 where he took an under 14s silver medal in the 90 metre hurdles. It complements Melia’s silver in Sydney in late October at the 2014 NSW All Schools Track and Field Championships and a memorable gold for the NSW Schools Finals.
But you can’t blame Melia for feeling a little cranky he wasn’t standing on the top tier of the platform.
Melia bested Victorian Aaron Leferink in the preliminaries in Adelaide with a time of 12.70. He identified Leferink as the one to beat.
“He was pretty fast; he was the competition out of the whole thing,” Melia said, but a knock in the finals cost him the gold.
“It was the third last hurdle, and I just nicked the top of it and it got my knee and couldn’t run as fast because I slowed down and it was hurting too much. He was still on speed because he didn’t hit a hurdle, and yeah, I slowed down and he just gained more speed past me,” Melia said.
The hurdler is soaking up the technical advice, filing it away and breaking his own records with each run. Flat running never did it for Melia; it’s always been hurdles.
“It’s just my brother doing hurdles, and it looked good, so I just started doing it. Flat running didn’t interest me; I could flat run anyway, it was just getting technique over hurdles and that that I loved.”
Melia will take the talent to 100, 200 and 110 metres in 2015, and has the Country Championships in January and National Juniors in March.
