Some of Dubbo's best and brightest young athletes have smashed their own personal bests en-route to claiming a host of gold medals during a recent road trip to the 2021 NSW Country Championships in Mingara.
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Coach Sarah Ryan walked away happy with the efforts of her small team that travelled, and while numbers were down across the board due to delays in hosting and arranging the event, the level of competition let the young guns talents and grit show through.
"This group of kids in particular, but it is wider spread, have this amazing mindset for kids their age; they're not going out there because they're wanting to win, they're going out there with goals and focusing on the distances and times that they want to hit," Ryan said.
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"That's what they really want, it's not so much about going out to win a gold medal, it's really challenging themselves as far as achieving their personal best and really pushing themselves in terms of their goals."
"For kids that are so young, that's really quite incredible."
While personal bests were the target, and many were met and surpassed, plenty of gold medals were handed out to Dubbo representatives on the day.
Grace Peters, one of Ryan's proteges, took first in both discus and shot put events in her under 14s age group, while also picking up a close second in the javelin stage.
Benray Ludick did the same in the under 15s, bringing home gold for both discus and shot put, Jakob Petteron took gold in the 400m and long jump events.
James Cosier rounded out the first place securing efforts with a win in the under 16s 400m race.
"Overall, the kids performed really well, they hit quite a few of their personal bests and you can't ask for anything more than that," Ryan said.
While the schedule has become clustered and somewhat overwhelming with just how many events are being rearranged and crammed into the opening season of athletic competition, Ryan says that her young athletes have managed the 'jampacked' timetable well and staying disciplined throughout.
"There's quite a few kids who'll be competing across the next few weekends, hoping to qualify for the Australian championships happening later in April," Ryan said.
