The school holidays may be looming, but instead of looking for ways to relax, four Gum Flat students are planning their training regimes.
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Charly Thorpe, Michaela McKay, Will Lindsay and Jarrod White are all thrilled to be representing their school next month after winning the Nigel Bagley Relay at the Regional Athletics Championships in Tamworth.
“I’m excited about it,” White said. He was keen for a redo after being part of last year’s team, which came fourth at regional level.
“It was good because we got first by a fair distance,” he said. Running the race in 59.94 seconds, ahead of North Star Public School at 1.00.82 and Nundle at 1.01.53, White felt the Gum Flat team needed to shave another 10 seconds off their time.
Thorpe, who will visit Sydney for the first time as part of the team, is already busy training at home with her mum.
“Sometimes we run around the house and sometimes we just go up the lane,” she said. A bookworm, she said she might have to cut back on her reading time to keep up.
McKay is also excited about the Sydney visit, and said she was keen to see the level of competition. She will also take on the individual 100 metres race, after a 15 second first place run in Tamworth. She’s working on improving her reaction times to the starting pistol.
Not content with the relay win, Lindsay also qualified in the 100 metres, 200 metres and long jump events. While White concentrates on a quick take off that avoids the dreaded false start, Lindsay will do his best to finish strong.
“It’s pretty fun being last, because you get to know what place you got,” he said.
Of his individual events, Lindsay is most excited for the long jump.
“I really love my long jump. My longest jump is 4.78 metres,” he said.
“I’m not sure what place I’ll get, but I hope it’ll be better than last year’s.”
Lindsay said he’ll take it easy in his 200 metre race, and isn’t too concerned about the result. He said this year’s 100 metre is rumoured to have a fast lineup.
“I’m still going to try, but I’m not going to worry if I don’t make it to the finals,” he said.