From accidental silver to eyes on the prize
A YEAR has made a big difference to the mindset of Emma McKay.
The Otago Girls’ High School athlete has her eyes on a medal at this weekend’s national secondary school track and field championships at the Caledonian Ground.
That is most likely to come in either the junior girls long jump or triple jump — the event she won silver in last year.
It had come as a surprise to the now15yearold, who pulled out a big jump of 11.07m to leap from out of the medals to second.
‘‘I hadn’t really done triple jump that much,’’ she said.
‘‘I kind of was just having fun and giving it a go and I just came out with a medal, which was really unexpected.’’
McKay followed that up three months later at the New Zealand championships.
There she jumped 11.38m to win silver in the under18 triple jump as a 14yearold.
Given those are her only two national championship meetings so far, it would be fair to say she has a pretty good success rate.
It only takes a quick glance at her to see she has a body that lends itself to jumping.
At 1.82m she has long limbs, which act as a handy pair of springs.
She has a handy arm as well and that was something that contributed to her taking up shot put, which she will also do this weekend.
Alongside that she will run in the Otago Girls’ junior 4x100m relay team.
That is plenty of variety and that is not limited to athletics either.
She also plays representative volleyball and netball and dabbled in other sports when she was younger.
Indeed, athletics was not even on her radar until she was pushed into it as a 9yearold.
It is something she is thankful for now.
‘‘I didn’t actually want to do athletics. My parents forced me into it.
‘‘I came along to a haveago day and didn’t do anything at all.
‘‘But I’ve loved it ever since.’’
That leads her to this weekend and she is excited to compete at a big meeting on home turf.
Personal bests were her main goal — at present they are 11.38m in the triple jump and 5.26m in the long jump.
A medal would be a bonus, although she will hope to be well in the hunt, going by her past.
The event begins tomorrow afternoon and continues all day on Saturday and Sunday.
There will be 1305 athletes from around the country competing, 147 of them from Otago schools.
It is the first time Dunedin has hosted the event since 2012.
Buildup to the championships will continue in tomorrow’s Otago Daily