KEEPING young sports-people fit during their summer break is paying dividends for the Border Track and Field club, which brought 29 medals home from the Victorian Country Championships.
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Eleven of those 29 medals were gold, and team strength and conditioning coach Rachel Little said it was a huge effort from an area with a smaller pool of talent.
“Some of these kids put in absolutely dominant performances, and it’s really exciting to see them go toe to toe with people from much bigger clubs like Bendigo,” Little said.
Jackon Crowe defended his 100 and 200 metre title in the under 16 category, while Campbell Chesser and Harry Hazard had a one-two finish in the under-14 100 metre sprint.
Tim Miles was untouchable in the under-16 long jump, winning the event by nearly a metre, according to Little.
Many of the club’s athletes are footballers, netballers and junior soccer players according to Little, and she credited their motivation to improve their performance in their chosen sports for their success at the championships.
“The vision we have for the club is to take players from football clubs and the like, and help them work on their athleticism while they’re away from the game,” Little said.
“As well as working on the fitness and athletic skills, we work with them on their nutrition and on the psychological aspects of high level sports.
“The ultimate goal is for them to have a much higher awareness of player and athlete management, so that when they go back to the sport they play, they’re giving themselves a much better chance of performing at their best.”
Little said the club had ambitious plans for the future.
“We think there’s a huge amount of athletic potential around here,” she said.
“We want to take four times as many athlete to the country championships next time around, and really give the bigger clubs a run for their money.”