Is there something in the water at Mount Albert Grammar School making their athletes run faster, jump farther and throw further? Eleven new school records were set at MAGS’ Athletics Day in February. Among the record-breakers were three Year 13 students. Symone Tafuna'i set new times for both the Senior Girls’ 100m and 200m, Niven Longopoa broke the 110m hurdles and the long jump records in the Senior Boys’ grade and Rebekah Van Dort strode out in the Senior Girls’ long distance events to break her own 800m, 1500m and 3000m records that she set last year. All three have busy schedules outside the classroom. Symone has been in Wellington this weekend where, at a wet and windy Newtown Park track, she finished third in both the Youth Women 100m and 200m. Symone heads to Australia this week to compete in the Australian Junior Athletics Championships at Sydney Olympic Park as part of the Athletics New Zealand Performance Potential Squad, in a bid to make the New Zealand team for the World Youth Games in July. “The World Youth Games are in Columbia and it’s my goal to make the New Zealand team,” Symone said. “I’ve been training for that for quite a while to try and qualify. “My personal best (PB) for the 100m is 12.11 and for the 200m it’s 24.74 - that’s fast but “not as fast as I want it to be,” she quickly pointed out. “It’s real close but also real frustrating - for me to qualify for the Worlds I need to get 12 seconds for the 100m and 24.40 for the 200m.” Symone has a family background in Athletics “My parents both did athletics when they were young and when my sister started I followed her into it. It was just a fun thing when I first got involved but I started getting serious when I was in Year 10.” “I used to play other sports as well, but I gave them all up just to focus on Athletics.” Her trip across the Tasman this week for the Australian Junior Nationals will be her second successive year competing there. “I competed there last year in the relay team and the 100m. I came fourth and was 0.30 from third – I was so close.” Symone and Niven competed with distinction in the New Zealand Secondary Schools National Athletic Championship in Wanganui last December as Year 12s. Symone finished second in both the Senior Girls’ 100m and 200m, while Niven finished second in the Senior Boys’ long jump and fourth in the Senior Boys’ 110m hurdles. Niven, who also plays rugby for the MAGS first XV as a wing/fullback, is coming back from an injury-interrupted 2014 “I was injured early last year playing rugby and I had to have a shoulder reconstruction. I was only able to play sport again two months before the Athletics Nationals in December and my shoulder still wasn’t right then.” He said it’s much better now. “I jumped over seven metres last week.” Niven’s recent leap of 7.04m broke an 18-year MAGS Senior Boys’ Long jump record of 6.65m. He finished second at the Nationals in Wanganui with a jump of 6.79m, behind winner Hamish Gill of Westlake Boys’ High School who won with 7.09m. His fourth place finish at the 110m hurdles in Wanganui was in a time of 15.23, behind winner Peter Cox of Otago Boys’ High School who ran 13.89. His recent record time to break the MAGS school record was 14.74. Niven didn’t go to Wellington this weekend with Symone as he was playing in a Blues Super Rugby organised pre-season rugby 10s tournament. He said goal after finishing school this year is to try to win a sporting scholarship somewhere, but for now he’s just enjoying being injury free and eyeing up a big year. The third of this trio, Rebekah, said that she only took up running, largely by chance, to keep fit for football. Last year Rebekah was centre back for the MAGS Girls First XI that won the NZSS Football Championships for the second consecutive year row last season. This team won every game, scoring 114 goals and, with Rebekah helping to defend the net, they didn’t concede a single goal. She also does cross country in the winter – though not as seriously – and plays futsal for MAGS who are competing in the New Zealand Secondary School Futsal Championships in Wellington on 26 and 27 March. “I started out in athletics at the start of last year just to see how it would go; I just thought it would be a fun way to help prepare for the football season. I run the 800m, 1500m and 3000m events and it’s a really good way to stay competitive.” She didn’t attend the Nationals in December, but her school record times at the recent MAGS Athletics Day were 2:28.56 in the Senior Girls’ 800m (she ran 2:30.29 in 2014) 5:15.16 in the Senior Girls’ 1500m (she ran 5:18.82 in 2014) and 11:36.0 in the Senior Girls’ 3000m (she ran 11:45.06 in 2014). The other 2015 MAGS Athletics Day record breakers were Kalisi Longopoa (Junior Girls’ 70m Hurdles – Niven’s sister), Paige Witehira (Intermediate Girls’ Javelin – breaking a record set by current Black Ferns rugby player Portia Woodman in 2007), Sharne Robati (Junior Girls’ Shot Put), and Dylan Moon (Junior Boys’ Triple Jump – breaking a record set in 1978). In the past year Georgia Bushell has clocked up some serious frequent flyer miles. The Year 11 student at Christchurch Girls’ High School is New Zealand’s top ranked Under-16 girls skier. Georgia has been forced to spread her wings in pursuit of tougher competition. Recently she has made two trips to North America and is currently in Canada for the 2015 Whistler Cup. Early this year (January) Georgia trained with the Sugar Bowl Academy in Northern California and competed in the Far West events achieving very respectable results. At the Sugar Bowl races, soon after she had arrived, Georgia placed 7th in GS (giant slalom) and 5th in SL (slalom). Ending her trip at the Snow Summit races she placed 3rd in the SL and had back to back wins in the GS races winning all four runs. These results continued Georgia’s meteoric rise. In the 2013 Whistler Cup (Where was it staged – in whistler) which features competitors from about 35 countries, Bushell was 8th out of 110 competitors in the giant slalom . Last year she also attained the long sought after goal of being ranked number one for her age in New Zealand. “I hadn’t been ranked Number one since 2007 Bushell says. To achieve that ranking was very satisfying. Even better was that I proved to myself that I could compete on an international stage. That was a real bonus and something that has motivated me to work a lot harder.” Eden McKay is Georgia’s main rival in New Zealand. McKay trains Wanaka and spends the rest of the year in Switzerland training in the off season. Georgia and Eden often train and race together. Georgia says there are “maybe 20 really competitive skiers” in New Zealand whereas in the US there are “over fifty.” In the winter Georgia trains three to four times a week at the Mutt Hutt Ski field otherwise she prides herself on fitness. “I spend a lot of time in the gym. I want to be the fittest and strongest skier at every race. I believe if I am in good shape I can make up for the fact that I am not on the snow as much as my competitors.” Skiing runs deep in the Bushell family. Grandfather, John Bushell, caught the bug during his life and passed the passion down to father Michael who has instilled it in his children Georgia, Sam and Mia. “I started skiing when I was almost 3 and racing gates when I was 5, Georgia says, my passion for the sport has escalated over the years and now I am too immersed to give it up.” Georgia is coached by Chris Mosaed (head coach of team hutt) and Ben Griffin who attended the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. 2015 will be her second year with Ben and she’s really looking forward to making more improvements. Mike Greer homes, Brandex and Atomic are sponsors of Georgia whose next goal is to reach the Youth Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway in 2016 and the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea in 2018. |
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August 2015
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