Athletes take Pathway to top

HELPING HAND: Sport Whanganui's Nicole Dryden with kayaker Aiden Nossiter and coach Brian Scott after Nossiter's second inclusion in the Pathway To Podium programme.PHOTO/KAREN HUGHES 22052015WCSUPPODIUM

Eight Wanganui-trained athletes have been included in Sport New Zealand's latest Pathway to Podium (P2P) programme to help them reach the elite level.

It is the second year of P2P, which is run by High Performance Sport NZ (HPSNZ) as a national development programme where young emerging athletes and their coaches get support services in order to reach world championship and Olympic level.

They will get assistance tailored to their individual needs - be it strength and conditioning, nutrition, or sport psychology.

Regional hubs have been established in 14 locations to deliver the support, which includes Sport Whanganui locally.

Wanganui kayaker Aiden Nossiter will be linked in with Sport Whanganui's Nicole Dryden, after he and his New Zealand team-mates Toby Brooke and Max Brown were again named in the P2P intake through Canoe Racing NZ.

Brooke and Brown will be serviced by the Wellington P2P hub as they are at Victoria University, although both have made it clear they represent the Whanganui Multisport Club.

All three are preparing for the 2015 Junior and U23 World Sprint Championships in Lisbon, Portugal.

Now at Canterbury University which is working with Athletics NZ, former Wanganui Collegiate decathlete Max Attwell has also been named in the P2P group.

After coming to Collegiate from Levin and developing under the watchful eye of Alec McNab, Attwell went to America for training and events, and will be the first from the Wanganui area in P2P for athletics.

Now Waikato-based, former Collegiate rower and Aramoho Wanganui Rowing Club member Martyn O'Leary, recently announced in the New Zealand Under 21s, joins the programme, as does fellow rower Georgia Nugent-O'Leary, now in Canterbury and formerly of Nga Tawa Diocesan School.

While she has been away from home town Kakatahi for some years, ex-Collegiate student Phillipa Symes joins the Auckland P2P for her rugby sevens.

Hockey player Martin Atkinson, a Junior Black Sticks wider squad member in 2013, has also joined the Auckland P2P through NZ Hockey.

Brooke said he found the sport psychology workshops very useful in his first year.

"It was interesting to learn how much your mindset going in to a race effects how your race goes - how you're going to mentally prepare yourself for the race, visualising your race plan, relaxing, preparing yourself before the race."

As the sole P2P recipient still at home, Nossiter said he was pleased to be included for Year 2.

"Bringing the resources of the national programme into our region allows our athletes to continue their advancement, and to remain here in Wanganui."

Their kayaking coach Brian Scott said he was not surprised the three were included again.

"The basis of the boys' early success was a big aerobic base, which is coming to the fore now alongside their New Zealand peers;" he said. "The challenge now is to progress towards a parity with their international peers. P2P is the sort of programme that is going to help facilitate that."

Dryden said she was encouraged by the Wanganui P2P announcements

"It's great that these athletes are progressing on to national and international achievements, in a variety of sports, off the back of some really good developmental work."

The Wanganui-trained Year 2 P2P athletes are: Martin Atkinson (NZ Hockey, Auckland); Max Attwell (Athletics NZ, Canterbury); Toby Brooke (Canoe Racing NZ, Wellington); Max Brown (Canoe Racing NZ, Wellington); Aiden Nossiter (Canoe Racing NZ, Wanganui); Georgia Nugent-O'Leary (Rowing NZ, Canterbury); Martyn O'Leary (Rowing NZ, Waikato); Phillipa Symes (Sevens, Auckland).