Perseverance is key trait for athlete

DETERMINED: Megan Mackay is beginning to reap the rewards of her hard work. PHOTO/ROB VAN DORT 290415WCRVDMEGAN-MACKAY

The combination of talent, perseverance and dedication will take athletes a long way, whereas talent on its own will rarely suffice.

One such athlete is Megan Mackay who has shown perseverance when things were not so going well and is now beginning to reap the rewards of her and coach Aaron White's perseverance with performances that match her talent.

Mackay may well have been a little disappointed with many of her track performances over 800m when 600-metre races and her strength had probably promised more.

At NZ Secondary Schools, she put disappointment to one side after elimination in the 800 metres to finish 13th in the four kilometre road race, second in the Collegiate team, helping them to victory in the 3 and 6 to score team events. A couple of months later, she was again second team member in the 1500m track race at the Parrett Classic in Hamilton and set a substantial personal best. One she bettered at North Island Schools in finishing 8th after a 6th in the 800 metres the previous day in a disappointing time.

Mackay has clearly worked well over the holiday break as demonstrated at the Anzac Relays at Lake Wiritoa on Saturday when she gave her Collegiate team the best of starts with a 7:35 leg over the twisty two 1000-metre laps. This was a second faster than her well-performed teammate, Alice Bird, running the anchor leg. The combination of these two promising athletes and Sophie Collins and Jazmin Phillips helped the Collegiate quartet to second position behind a strong Palmerston North team in the 24 team race. Mackay was not a member of the silver-medal winning Collegiate team last year at NZSS and her form bodes well.

The Collegiate boys team led off by Christian Conder and anchored by Luke Gemmell was the leading local team at the relays, finishing third of the 24 teams in the men's grade, Palmerston North taking first and second.

Collegiate who were still on holiday will hope the return of Connor McErlich and Jamie Gillespie will add to the depth of their team at the NZSS championship to be held on June 20 in Dunedin.

I have extolled the value of relays in this column on many occasions and Saturday's races at Lake Wiritoa was another example of the excitement of this form of the sport. One visiting older runner remarked to me what fun it had been.

Palmerston North Athletic and Harrier Club with a large number of entries clearly demonstrated the value of the event in bringing a club together.

Scott Burch selected to represent New Zealand at the World University Games later this winter in the 4x400 relay team was in a team with sprint hurdler Hartley Quinn (returning from serious injury) and, in other teams, sprinters such as Andy Kruy combined with high jumper Jordan Peters.

The nature of the relay and the relatively short leg of 2000 metres allowed such combination. It is the same ingredients that have made the secondary schools Round the Lake Relay established in 1978 such a success. I know that this has been the main reason why schools come back year after year.

Next week, I will be at the annual Wellington Relays at Karori Park and, again, the excitement of the event will lead to strong competition for a place on the trip.