Young athlete shines in national championships

Leila Croker Brisbane20200216crop  TBW Newsgroup
FIRST MEDAL: Young Limestone Coast athlete Leila Croker proudly displays her silver medal gained at the Athletics Australia National Combined Event Championships in Brisbane.

Leila Croker Brisbane20200216crop  TBW Newsgroup
FIRST MEDAL: Young Limestone Coast athlete Leila Croker proudly displays her silver medal gained at the Athletics Australia National Combined Event Championships in Brisbane.

It was a successful trip to Brisbane recently for 13-year-old Limestone Coast athlete Leila Croker.

Croker headed up to the Sunshine State to represent South Australia at the Athletics Australia National Combined Event Championships and won a silver medal competing in the Under 15 Heptathlon.

The Under 15 heptathlon includes the 200 metre and 800 metre running, 90 metre hurdles, high jump, long jump, shot put and javelin.

It is a big task for a young athlete, but one Croker was up for.

She said she was proud to have claimed the silver medal at the national meet.

“It was a bit of a shock to me, but I was happy,” Croker said.

“It felt pretty special.

“It was my first ever national medal, so it was pretty good.”

Croker has experienced a fair amount of success recently more at local and state level, but said this achievement was her best to this stage.

She said it was not something she expected going into the meet.

“I did not really know what to expect,” Croker said.

“I just went there to try my best and put in the best performance I could do.”

Croker has previously competed at national events through the school SAPSASA system and Little Athletics, but never under Athletics SA, despite having previous opportunities.

However, she had never claimed a medal at that level, which made the achievement special.

It was also the furthest Croker had travelled to compete, which she said she enjoyed.

“I really liked it,” she said.

“It was hot, but it was nice.”

Despite so many different events in heptathlon, Croker has a simple way to stay focused on each discipline.

“I just take one event at a time,” she said.

“I try not to think too much about day two before day one is finished.”

Similarly with training, Croker said she simply worked on certain disciplines on different days, paying special attention to what she needs to improve the most.

“I usually I do a couple of things at each training session,” she said.

“My coach sends me things I need to do and they usually change depending on what I need to work on most.”

While Croker said she did not have a favourite event, she said the 800 metre run was one of the hardest.

“The most mentally challenging one is the 800,” she said.

“It is the last event so you kind of know what you have to do to finish where you want to place.

“The distance is okay because we prepare for it, but it is more mentally challenging.”

One area of the heptathlon which does provide a real challenge for the young athlete is throwing.

It is an area Croker said she needs to work hard on.

“For me I have to work a lot on my throwing events because they are not really something I was very good at,” she said.

“I still have a lot to improve, but I am slowly getting the hang of it.”

Rather than specialise on one particular event, Croker said she liked the variety of the heptathlon.

“I kind of like the range of events,” she said.

“I like the jumping and the running and the 800.

“I also thought it would be a good opportunity if you do not do such a good performance on one event you always have the other ones to make up for it.”

As for her future endeavours, Croker was somewhat philosophical.

“It would be nice to maybe go one better next year,” she said.

“But at the moment I am just looking to improve on the things that need improving and hopefully keep getting better as time goes on.”