Lake City children (centre) celebrate a win in the 8-year-old mixed medley. Photo / Supplied
Lake City children (centre) celebrate a win in the 8-year-old mixed medley. Photo / Supplied
Lake City Athletic children are making a habit of standing on podiums.
At the weekend, the club took 64 athletes to the Waikato Relay Championships where the greatest challenge they faced was working out how to carry all the medals they had won.
Lake City teams, in a range oftrack and field relays, claimed 13 gold, seven silver and five bronze medals.
Children's convenor Kelly Albrecht said it was great to see the children enjoy so much success but regardless of how many medals they brought home, it was the experience and enjoyment they took from the event which would keep them involved and active.
"As always, [the atmosphere] was awesome. Probably half the kids we had there and their parents had never attended an athletics event before. They came home saying 'what a cool group of people, what a great environment'."
"A lot of the parents beat me there, had the tents set up and the music pumping and now they can't wait for the next one, which is exactly what we want as a club. Some of the parents said the best part for their children was just coming along with others, hanging out all day, going off to watch each others' events, playing games. It was really cool and I think that's what the parents thrive off too."
The club won Club of the Year at the Bay of Plenty Sports Awards for its progress in getting kids involved and providing them with a pathway to competition. They had so many children keen on attending the championships in Hamilton that in some events they had A, B and C teams entered.
A lot of the success game in the field relays which Albrecht put down to a couple of new volunteers who had been helping out.
"In a field relay, the best way to get points is to have good throwers. We've had Marcus Hayward coaching the shot put and Dave McGrath coaching the discus. They've been working on everyone's techniques and giving them some really good coaching.
"It's incredible to see what a little bit of extra coaching can do. Last year, I tried to do a lot of it myself and as much as I would like to train every single person there, I'm only one woman. So, to have those two guys step up this season has just been amazing."
Te Pumanawa o Toku Ate Rogers reaches full speed at the Waikato Relay Championships. Photo / Supplied
The championships, being a step up from their regular club nights, were also a valuable learning opportunity for the children involved.
"Our 7-year-old boys, in their first ever relay event, they won and broke the record by two seconds but could not take it because one of the kids stood over the white line on one of the bends and they were disqualified.
"It teaches resilience because straight after the race they were pumped, they thought they'd won only for it to be taken away. I asked one of the parents to talk to them, give them a boost up and tell them they did a great job so now they have to try to do the same in their field event.
"They bounced back in that and won a gold which shows these kids can bounce back from a failure. To put it aside and turn it around like that in the field event, that's a tough learning experience at 7 so it was really cool to see."
The event also included the Waikato Walk Championships in which Lake City's Tyla Wallis claimed gold and broke the event record in the 11-year-old girls' race.
