Dual sporting honours for Henderson athlete

Dual national sporting honours have come just days apart for Henderson's Armel Chou-Lee.
On April 11, Armel, 16, was named as a New Zealand representative in discus at the International Association of Athletics Federations' World Youth Championships. She will fly to Ostrava, in the Czech Republic, in July for the athletics.
Two days later Armel was named in the New Zealand secondary schools netball squad to play in next month's Trans Tasman Challenge in Auckland.
``I'm really happy and rather stoked about my selections. I started crying when I found out. My family is really proud,'' says the Year 12 Massey High School student.
The athletics team's throwing coach, Les Mills, says Armel is a promising athlete. ``She is multi-talented,'' he says. `` She has a very good future in track and field.''
The World Youth Championships is a biennial global athletics event for competitors who are aged 17 or younger. To qualify, Armel needed to throw 42m - but she beat that with a hefty 44.8m.
Armel has now stepped up her daily training to between three and four hours.
New Zealand Netball's secondary schools team coach Kiri Wills says Armel was selected ``because she's a rugged wing defence. She is aggressive, strong in the air and a particularly tight marker, and these are important when playing Australia''.
The team will compete against Australian, Aotearoa Maori, Pasifika and indigenous Australian teams, and a Counties Manukau invitation team.
Kiri says New Zealand has won the challenge every year in the four years it has been running; and the girls often go on to represent New Zealand at higher levels.
``The challenge is a nice competition to introduce the girls to international competition.''
- by Jo Gilbert, Canterbury journalism student