Daughter follows in Mum’s footsteps
A 16-year-old Cromwell girl is following in her Commonwealth Gold-winning mother’s footsteps chasing success on the field.
Jaide Dixon is one of only two girls in the South Island to be selected for the New Zealand under-16 touch rugby team and has just returned from a successful Australian under-18 tournament winning six of the eight games.
Her mum, Tania Murray, was the same age when she pulled on a black jersey embossed with the silver fern, as a track and field New Zealand representative. At 19, she won a gold medal in the women’s high jump at Auckland’s 1990 Commonwealth Games.
‘‘I am just so proud Jaide gets to pull on that black singlet and have that experience that I had.’’
While Dixon had taken up track and field in Cromwell, she was lured away by a love of touch rugby when she started at St Hilda’s Collegiate School in Dunedin, playing for her school, Otago and now her country.
‘‘I just want to keep doing touch and see where it leads and keep working hard.’’
Murray said although her daughter has chosen a different sport, she was still able to pass on some knowledge from experience.
‘‘The kids always did a bit of athletics because they were interested and I coached at the school but she prefers touch to track and field ... I think athletics gives them a real good basis of good sprinting, speed – any sport that they choose track and field sets them up nicely.’’
‘‘I have always said to the kids you can have as much talent as you like but if you don’t put in the work and have a few key combination things that drive you then that is as far as it goes.’’
Her daughter had also been a recipient of a Skeggs Foundation grant – as had she as a young athlete. ‘‘Jaide has the qualities if she chooses to go on to be successful because she puts the work in. That is what I am most proud of – seeing that she has done the training and done the work to get some good results.’’
‘‘I am just so proud Jaide gets to pull on that black singlet and have that experience that I had.’’ Tania Murray