Waimea College athlete, Katie Thompson, will be focusing on the jumping events when she competes in next month’s national secondary schools championships in Whanganui.
The talented 17-year-old competed in the long and triple jump and 100 metre sprint in her last big meeting at the club nationals in March. However, Katie says that “it was hard to focus on all three of them” and has decided to put all her energy into her two strongest events, the long and triple jump, for the December 6 and 7 meeting at Cooks Gardens.
Katie is also hoping that some technical adjustments and intensive training drills, suggested by Athletics New Zealand’s high performance coach Terry Lomax, will help her in both disciplines. She is spending a lot of time in training, improving the fundamentals of her triple jump and says it’s likely to be a while before the changes translate into better performances.
“Terry told me I need to focus on my long jump take off and how my feet leave the ground to get to the next level,” Katie says. “He also wants me to work on the fundamentals of my triple jump and has me doing lots of drills – it’s quite frustrating because I will probably go backwards before I start to improve so I will just have to be patient.”
Katie is hopeful she makes enough progress in her triple jump to be competitive at the secondary schools nationals. However, she is happy with her form in the long jump despite a tough day at the office at the Tasman Clubs champs at Saxton Field last Saturday.
“I only jumped 4.95 metres and my personal best is 5.53 but it wasn’t the best conditions,” she says referring to the strong wind that made life difficult for all the athletes.
Katie had recorded her personal best when finishing second in the under-18 long jump at the national club champs in Wellington in March and hopes to replicate that sort of form at the secondary school’s champs.
“I’m really looking forward to going to Whanganui and seeing everyone and competing at the next level.”
Katie will compete in the long jump on Saturday and triple jump on Sunday.
