File picture
When Maddie Wilson lined up for an 800-metre race this month, she knew a win would mean the national under-18 heptathlon title would be hers.
The Gisborne 16-year-old had never competed in an 800m race before. She won the race, and the heptathlon — her first.
She also had four personal bests from the heptathlon at the New Zealand Combined Events Championships in Christchurch — in the 800m, 100m hurdles, javelin and shot put.
“I was pretty happy . . . excited,” Wilson says.
“I know I can improve a lot from there.”
In April, at the Australian u20 nationals in Sydney, her competition will be older, the javelin and shot heavier and the hurdles higher.
Wilson, though, has form for being able to adapt.
At the combined events meet last year in Whanganui, where she competed in the six-event hexathlon (heptathlon has seven), she learned to do hurdles on the morning of competition.
She also has hurdles that young athletes from bigger centres do not need to overcome. Gisborne doesn’t have a modern athletics track, so Wilson trains on grass at Awapuni Stadium or at the beach.
It’s not ideal preparation for one of her better events — the high jump. Nor for long jump. With the surface at her competitions being so different, she is unable to practise her run-ups properly.
“The stride lengths are all different,” she says.
Nonetheless, Wilson is a two-time national secondary schools’ junior high jump champion.
She has a strong background in sprinting and believes playing a range of sports in her schooling years has set her up well for success.
Surf lifesaving complements athletics in the summer.
Head prefect this year at Gisborne Girls’ High School, Wilson also intends to play football again this winter.
She plays various sports because she enjoys them.
“I never really wanted to specialise.”
Her father Graham Wilson, an ophthalmologist and principal investigator for eye-related matters in the Dunedin Study, also researched whether it is better for promising young athletes to play a range of sports or narrow their focus.
“My dad read up about it,” Wilson says.
“The majority of Olympians have played two or three sports growing up.”
Her athletics combined events coach in Christchurch, Terry Lomax, shares much the same perspective.
“He understands I have other commitments.”
In Gisborne, Wilson says her surf lifesaving coach, Cory Hutchings, is “very supportive” and running coach Arna Majstrovic puts a lot of time in to athletes under her watch.
Partly inspired by a British athleteWilson’s relatively recent foray into combined events was partly inspired by British athlete Jessica Ennis (now Ennis-Hill) winning a gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics.
Wilson took to unfamiliar throwing events well.
She worked on the javelin, particularly, in the lead-up to the Christchurch meet. By contrast, she had not competed in long jump since she was 14.
Wilson was rapt with her start to the competition. Having already shaved 0.8 of a second from her 100m hurdles personal best a week earlier at the Porritt Classic in Hamilton, she took off a further 0.4 of a second.
Feeling good in the warm-ups for high jump, her focus was on getting first-time clearances. She achieved that, dipping out at 1.71m, which would have been a personal best.
A personal best came in the shot put, one of her newer events, although she was a little disappointed she didn’t do even better.
The 200m went well and she was just off a personal best.
Leading after Day 1, she held her advantage throughout Day 2.
The long jump was “not too bad” and she was pleased with the javelin.
She ran the 800m a bit slower than she would’ve liked but, overall, was still happy.
Next year, she may study health science at Otago University or take a gap year to pursue athletics from Christchurch. But she’s not the sort to get ahead of herself.
In the immediate future, the New Zealand Track and Field Championships are on in Christchurch on March 8, 9 and 10 and Wilson will compete for Hawke’s Bay/Gisborne.
Two weeks later she has the surf lifesaving nationals at Mount Maunganui.
Then she will fly to Sydney, where she will try to build on her Christchurch performance, despite new challenges.
“I go out and do my best and enjoy the sport,” she says.
“I’m competitive — competing against myself — doing the best I can.”