Athletics: The ability to perform under pressure and adaptability, the qualities of champions

Jacky Dai has been named Whanganui Collegiate boys' track and field captain for 2022. Photo / Supplied

In all sports, it is important to be able to perform on the big occasion and this is often the mark of the real champion. Adaptability, especially in these changing times, ranks highly also. Many of our successful Olympians reflected on how they had to adapt in their build-up to Tokyo.

Both qualities are going to be important in the season ahead. They will be a major topic at the Whanganui Collegiate pre-season camp in Palmerston North this weekend and in other training groups around the country in preparation for the season.

Last week I highlighted two athletes who have these qualities and looked likely to make a breakthrough in the forthcoming season. This week I will look at two more exciting prospects.

Jacky Dai has been appointed the Whanganui Collegiate boys track and field captain for 2022. Dai has already proved his ability to compete under pressure. In his debut senior boys' competition at last year's New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships, the inexperienced young triple jumper was staring at elimination with both opening jumps ruled as fouls.

They were both big jumps but were marginally in front of the take-off board. This left just one jump to qualify as one of the top eight, earning three more jumps.

Dai responded in the best possible way by nailing his run-up producing a 33cm personal best of 13.15m to make the final in which he finished a highly credible fourth in a grade in which he has two more years.

Dai was in a similar position at the North Island Schools in the long jump and again produced a personal best effort to rescue the situation (6.18m) finishing fifth. The long jump is his less favoured horizontal jump but again he showed that ability to perform when it matters.

He made sure of his early trials in the triple jump, taking his first podium place finishing third. Dai has set high goals for the season including seeking his first national medal.

His sister Anna has given sterling service as an official at both school and club level as highlighted in the past in this column. Her brother has already shown organisational skills and hopes to build on his competition CV in the summer ahead.

Casie Glentworth, in her final year at Whanganui High School, might be small in stature but is big on spirit and competitiveness.

Glentworth first came to notice when, as a Year 10 athlete, she finished second in the 70m hurdles at the North Island Schools Championships at Cooks Gardens, demonstrating sound technique at a hurdle height and spacing that suited her physique.

She waited three years to again climb the podium in Hamilton at this year's North Island Championships but it should be noted that the 2020 championships were a victim of our first lockdown.

In the intervening years, Glentworth has played a full part in the Whanganui High School relay programme and at the same time focusing on the longer 300m hurdles.

Glentworth ran in the same teams as Charlotte Baker, who featured in last week's article, winning silver medals in both the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 as juniors at the 2019 New Zealand Schools Championships, taking a fourth place as seniors in the 4 x 100 and seventh in the 4 x 400 at the 2020 Championships. They were both members of the third-placed Whanganui 4 x 400 team at North Island in Hamilton.

Glentworth also made that major step up by taking second in the Senior Girls 300m hurdles with a significant personal best of 46.45s behind her team-mate Maggie Jones, Baker was third for a Whanganui trifecta with Whanganui Girls College athlete Paige Cromarty in fourth place.

The Hamilton performance bodes well for Glentworth who sees a 300m hurdle podium position in Inglewood at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships as a major goal for the months ahead.

The Whanganui senior club nights start next Tuesday (October 19) with the C programme commencing with the 60m at 7pm followed by the popular 2000m road race at 7.15pm.

On the track programme, there are two more sprints, the 150m and 300m following the same popular opening night as last year. There is also a 600m. In the field, there is shot and triple jump which doubles a Collegiate Championship event. A full programme is on the Athletics Whanganui website and included in the programme are protocols to follow under alert level 2.