Adams' visit thrills children

How many gold medals Valerie Adams will win in the future was one of the questions posed to the shot putting champion as she met hundreds of Rotorua school children.

That was one question she couldn't answer. "I don't know how many, no pressure," she joked.

Olympic and world champion Adams was in Rotorua yesterday as part of a nationwide tour to inspire children to stay active.

The tour is in conjunction with New Zealand Post - Adams is an ambassador for the company - and she supports ActivePost, which is its Health and Wellness community programme.

At the Village Green school pupils from across the district played games designed to develop fundamental sports skills. Get Set Go is a nationwide programme run through Athletics New Zealand and athletics clubs for children in Years 1 to 3.

"While it looks like fun the games do have specific purposes," said Get Set Go co-ordinator Karen Laurie.

"It's also about getting kids to love sport. There's so much pressure sometimes on kids to perform from a young age, this is about kids smiling and having a heap of fun."

Adams joined in the warm up and then met each school group for photos and to answer their questions.

She also brought along her Commonwealth Games gold medal for the children to look at. "I'm happy to be a part of this to try to inspire as many kids as we can to stay active," she said.

"Just saying hi to the kids and high-fiving them, checking out what they can do. It's all about having fun."

Among the schools taking part was Lake Rotoma School.

"It's a great opportunity for the children," said teacher Ana Wilcox. "They don't get a lot of chances to get out of school and it was great to have their photo with her. They were pretty excited to meet her."

Earlier Adams met staff at the mail centre on Waterford St where they had a healthy breakfast and in the afternoon she met fans at the Rotorua Central PostShop before heading to Palmerston North for today's Get Set Go session.

Among those at the PostShop were father and son Shane and Ethan Mackay. Ethan, 9, got out of school for the occasion and was taking signed postcards back to his teacher and classmates.