Children in the shire are stretching and competing against their personal bests in hopes to place next week at the NSW State PSSA athletics carnival in Sydney.
There will be multiple children representing their schools through items such as relay, sprinting, high jump and long jump.
One of the parents who will see their child compete is Kelly Warren, whose daughter Elodie will represent the Polding Catholic Schools area after her relay team made the cut.
They started at St Xavier’s Athletics Carnival, then placed first at the Armidale Diocesan Sports Carnival before competing at Polding.
“To have your child get to this level is just so amazing, and they should all be so very proud of their efforts,” Warren said.
Elodie’s team consists of Eloise Launders, Millie Lyle and Georgina Grimm. They placed second, missing out on first by 62 milliseconds at Tamworth at Polding Athletics Carnival.
“When they won their silver medal at the Polding, we were all so excited, jumping around, and some happy tears were had,” Warren said.
ZooM Athletics coach Andrew Frend provided coaching for the girls alongside St Xavier’s Primary School’s Shelby Glavoich, who has also played a significant mentoring role.
Frend’s group ‘ZooM Athletics’, has seen success with six of the primary aged students qualifying for the state championships in 10 events.
He has been working with these children to keep pushing for their best and maybe even win a medal.
Students under his tutelage who will compete next week are Cooper
Galton and Paddy Dowe, both competing in 1500m and 800m sprints for their age category, Allie Neilson in 100m and 200m sprint,
Josh Spinks in high jump and Ruby Cygan in high jump along with long jump.
Cooper Galton, Millie Lyle and Paddy Dowe.
Eloise Launders, Millie Lyle, Georgina Grimm, Elodie Warren and coach Andrew Frend.
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