TOM HAYES
ATHLETICS
By TOM HAYES LEARNING from the best is what Glengarry’s Kaydence Fleming was able to do when she took on Coles Little Athletics National High-Performance Camp at the Gold Coast Performance Centre. Fourteen-year-old Fleming qualified her way to the camp, storming through regional and state divisions in February and March, landing herself a gig at a national meet in April. Fleming competed in the long jump, 400-metre sprint, 200m and 200m hurdles during the meets. She only managed to qualify for the 200m hurdles at the national meet, which gave her the ticket to go to the athletics camp. Fleming spent four days in Queensland with athletics professionals and Olympians, who not only shared experiences but also trained the up and coming stars. “It was really cool to be around all of the Olympians and get some tips from them, it was just a really cool environment to be around,” Fleming said. “It was lots of fun to hear their experiences and learn a bit off them. “They trained us for two hours a day, we got some one-on-one training with them.” While on the camp, the young athletes learnt about nutrition, education, recovery and importantly mental health all from a sporting perspective. Fleming competes out of the Moe Little Athletics Centre and was one of around 20 children in Victoria, and one in over 70 children in Australia that got the chance to experience the camp. She started little athletics at the age of five, competing in the Under 6 division, now Fleming has prospered with age, competing in the Under 15 division. During the COVID pandemic, Fleming and her older sister Elly continued to train and get better, not letting that time go to waste. “My sister, she’s three years older than me, I do all of my training with her, all my competitions with her, she’s pretty motivated to do all of that stuff so she helped me through that,” she said. Fleming has high aspirations as to where her athletics journey can take her, hoping to continue to develop her craft as time goes on. “My favourite event is 400m (sprint), so I would love to go to further competitions doing that, maybe even represent Australia one day,” she said. The Little Athletics season began at the weekend with clubs opening their gates once again.
