By JARROD POTTER
ONE medal would have been enough for Amy Tyrrell, but to pick up a pair from the recently held national schools athletics championships was beyond her wildest dreams.
Tyrrell, 11, from Berwick, was thrilled to pick up a gold and a silver medal at the School Sport Australia 12-and-under Track and Field Championships, held last week in Penguin, Tasmania.
“I feel great and amazing to actually take a medal home with me to show and remember the great experience,” Tyrrell said.
Picking up her first national title – as part of the under-12 girls’ 800 sprint medley relay – Tyrrell ran the first 200-metre leg to help her team finish in 1.56.63 minutes and clinch the gold medal.
“I was running 200m at the start and we actually had a good team and were coming second, but South Australia was disqualified so we got gold,” Tyrrell said.
“Feels good to win as we definitely deserved it – all the girls tried really hard in training to get our relay passes good and everything clicked.”
Tyrrell earned her first medal of the carnival as she was narrowly pipped into second place in the long jump final after securing a personal best with a 5.02m leap.
She had to work hard to improve her long jumping to that level, but she was pleased to have put in the extra training to ensure she could take home that medal.
“My long jump wasn’t really going well before that – nothing was clicking, it wasn’t right,” Tyrrell said.
“Then we did a lot of training with my dad and when I went to compete with my dad my first jump was 4.74m and I was pretty happy with that because I didn’t expect to get that far on my first jump.
“On my last jump I jumped a personal best of 5.02 and the winner jumped 5.03, it was very close but I wasn’t disappointed as I know that I got a PB for one and to take home a medal as well.”
Capping off her successful campaign at the national schools championships for Tyrrell was earning a spot in the 200m final where she finished seventh.
She wanted to thank her family, teachers Mr B and Mr J and everyone who has supported her athletic dreams.
