Athletics: Success runs in the family

Georgia Hulls, centre, with her Nanny Jean Hulls, left, and father and coach Dean Hulls before another training run in the buildup to this weekend's national secondary schools athletics championships in Auckland. Photo/Glenn Taylor.

Jean Hulls sits in the background listening quietly as her granddaughter Georgia Hulls rattles off her athletics successes of the past 12 months.

"Georgia could do well as a pentathlete in the future," Jean said when Havelock North High School Year 9 student Georgia dashed off to find her medals.

It would be easy to dismiss Jean's prediction as just proud nanny (Jean hates the "grandmother" word) chatter. But Jean isn't just a proud grandmother ... she's an athletics matriarch in Britain as well as Hawke's Bay.

Jean represented Great Britain as a pentathlete in the late 1950s and early 1960s alongside British legend Mary Rand who became the first British female to win an Olympic gold medal in a track and field, taking the long jump in 1964. With a silver in the pentathlon and a relay bronze in Tokyo, Rand remains the only Great Britain female athlete to win three medals at the same Olympics.

Now 75, Jean represents Hawke's Bay Gisborne in masters athletics during the New Zealand summer and returns to her Hastings home in Britain and competes in masters events there during the northern hemisphere summer. During last weekend's North Island Masters Championships in Whangarei, Jean set a New Zealand record for the shot put with a 7.50m effort and also won the 200m title in her age group with a time of 39.5s.

Fourteen-year-old Georgia's versatility is an indication she could back up her nanny's prediction. This year she has won the East Coast North Island Secondary Schools Year 9 road race, cross country, 100m, 200m and 300m sprint titles.

Ironically Georgia doesn't see a long-term future for herself in any of these events. "Cross country is definitely too far ... I'll probably focus on the 400 and 800 towards the end of my high school days. I'm not good enough and I don't have the right build to make the sprints my priority," Georgia explained.

Pundits may find this hard to believe after a glance at Georgia's personal bests - 12.55s for the 100m, 25.87s for the 200m, 41.3s for the 300m and 58.71s for the 400m. This weekend Georgia will tackle the 16 years and under 100m, 200m, 4 x 100m relay and 4 x 400m relay at the national secondary schools championships at Auckland's Mount Smart Stadium.

"I want to medal in the 100 and 200 and it would be good if we could make finals in the relays," Georgia said.

There will be 67 starters in her 100m and 47 in the 200m.

"It's going to be a busy weekend. If everything goes to plan I will have heats, quarter-finals, semifinals and finals in both of the sprints," Georgia said.

Her 4 x 100m relay team, which includes Georgia Rathbone, Monique Thomson and Sophie Peterson set a record at the East Coast North Island Secondary Schools champs. Labelled "the Dream Team" by fans, they will compete at next month's Colgate Games in Whangarei, Georgia's seventh and last Colgate.

At last year's Colgate in Inglewood, Georgia won the 100, 200 and 400m titles in her age group and the relay team finished second. There's no doubt she has made rapid progress since taking up athletics as a six-year-old when her Hastings club was based at the old Nelson Park venue.

While her nanny's and grandfather's (grandfather Syd Hulls is a power walker) genes have obviously had a huge influence, the question had to be asked of her father Dean ... why hasn't he shone on the athletics scene?

"Those genes missed me and that's why I started playing hockey," Dean said.

However the former English National Hockey League division two player who is Hawke's Bay Hockey's Academy and Reps manager has thrived as Georgia's coach.

"I've been working on her speed and agility since she was 7. We train at least four times a week and Georgia is fortunate to have one of the Bay's top young triathletes Kaleb Wright as a training partner ... it's good for her endurance."

Jean reckoned Dean could give the Hawke's Bay Gisborne contingent a boost when the North Island Masters Games are staged in Hastings next year.

"Don't say that Mum. It would mean I would have to do some training," Dean said indicating he is more comfortable as a coach than a competitor.

Georgia's mother Rachel Hulls is also into sport but more equestrian than athletics. Dressage is her favourite discipline and she is more a teacher than a competitor these days.