Training: Hub athletes fulfilling their promise

The Educare Northland Sports Talent Hub/Northland Pathway To Podium programme participants have all done well this year. Photo / Supplied

It has been a successful year for the 18 current Educare Northland Sports Talent Hub/Northland Pathway to Podium Programme participants.

Of the 18 athletes, 11 have either represented New Zealand, been selected to represent New Zealand, or have been selected for a New Zealand Development Squad.

Some of the athletes made their first New Zealand debuts this year, including Jack Ding in the Oceania badminton champs, Callum Prime and Hayley McIntosh for the Swimming NZ age group team, and Jasmine Milton in the U19 beach volleyball team that toured the US.

Other athletes maintained their good form to continue their New Zealand representation, such as Samantha Polovnikoff in hockey and Paige Lawgun in Olympic weightlifting at the Oceania champs and Youth Commonwealth Games.

More recently, two of the squash players, Finn Trimble and Zoe Dykzeul, were selected for the junior transtasman test team that will play in the Gold Coast in January, and fellow squash player Mackenzie Johnson made the New Zealand secondary schools squash team.

Some of the athletes will train up to 20 hours a week during their season and travel out of Northland to compete every second weekend.

The Hub aims to assist these athletes with balancing their sport and lives, improve their knowledge on nutrition and sharpen their mental performance skills at workshops throughout the year.

Well-known local athlete Ady McKenzie co-ordinates the programme and also supports the athletes through the NorthTec partnership.

The year culminated at the ASB Northland Secondary School Sports Awards where four Hub athletes took out four of the six top awards - Mackenzie Johnson and James Mortimer winning All Rounders of the Year and Callum Prime and Samantha Polovnikoff winning Sports Male and Sports Female of the Year.

The Hub was set up in partnership with Sport New Zealand, NorthTec, the Kauri Club and major sponsor Educare to assist talented young Northland athletes towards achieving their sporting goals, and to better prepare them as they move towards the high performance phase of their sporting pathway.

The next intake of athletes to apply to enter their first year of the Educare Northland Sports Talent Hub will occur next April.

2015 Educare Northland Sports Talent Hub Athletes:

Year Two: Daniel Gaualofa (Swimming Parafed, Pathway to Podium), Imogen Hull - (Athletics), Jack Ding (Badminton), Luther Cronin (Hockey), Samantha Polovnikoff (Hockey).

Year 1: Callum Prime (Swimming), Ella Kini (Hockey), Finn Trimble (Squash), Hadley Greenhalgh (Hockey), Hayley McIntosh (Swimming), James Mortimer (Hockey), Jasmine Milton (Beach Volleyball), Julian Fowler (Golf), Mackenzie Johnson (Squash), Paige Lawgun (Olympic Weightlifting), Scott Gregory (Athletics, Pathway to Podium), Taylor Gill (Golf), Zoe Dykzeul (Squash).