Italy-bound athlete has worlds at her feet

For awhile, it seemed even Mariah Ririnui's body was struggling to keep up with her natural speed.
The 16-year-old Tauranga athlete grew 3cm in the latter part of 2008, forcing her coaches to ease off vital strength work and concentrate on pure pace.
That paid  dividends on the track but, in her favoured long jump event, she found herself  frustrated, despite grabbing a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Youth Champs in India late last year.
"I was happy with the third in India but I was not so happy with my jumps,'' Ririnui said. "Last season was probably a bit better _ this season I didn't progress as much in the long jump and I didn't get the results on the day.''
Now she's got 10 weeks to correct that.
The Tauranga Girls' student and Aquinas College sprinter Joseph Millar have been selected in a 20-strong New Zealand team for July's IAAF World Youth Championships in Italy.
It's a big commitment, with her family needing to find more than $8000 to send her, with a camp and event in Brisbane on the way.
And she's putting all her athletic eggs in in the long jump basket, confident of lifting her personal best above 5.98m and making the top eight in the world.
"I could do the 100m, even though I didn't qualify for it, and it is tempting but I just want to focus on long jump in my training so I've got more of a chance.''
Her Hamilton-based coach, Criss Strange, is also travelling with the team. Strange, who has guided Ririnui for nearly two years, expects to see significant progress before they head away.
"She's got to be jumping 6.20m to be competitive at this world event because we know the top Europeans and Americans will be in that category,'' Strange said. "We focused on speed and she did extremely well in the sprints and didn't do quite as well in her long jump but that was based around how we were managing her growth. She's now been gaining strength fast so we're confident she'll be back on track.''
The 6m barrier is an important milestone for Ririnui. New Zealand hasn't had a top female longjumper since Chantal Brunner - with a personal best of 6.68m - retired two years ago.
But there's also a significant mark looming in her sprinting, with a sub-12secs time just a few long strides away. She's hit 12.28s officially but has nudged as low as 12.1s with wind assistance.
It's a different kind of assistance which has got her this far, however _ parents Rapata and Carol have spent hours a week crossing the Kaimai Ranges to take her to Hamilton to train. Strange's squad contains a number of promising sprinters and jumpers, giving Ririnui the competition at training she'd struggle to get in Tauranga.
But some things have come easily ... her natural ability, for example.
"There's never been any question on her ability - she's been a natural athlete all her life - but it's just a matter of getting some specifics into her training and also a little bit of body correction as she was growing,'' Strange said of the former representative basketballer and netballer.
"It's been a fantastic effort by her family to have her over the hill several times a week but she loves the sport and she loves the group we train with.''