OGHS pupil makes international athletic debut

Ready to run is Otago Girls’ High School pupil Catherine Lund (16). She recently won gold with a time of 18min 21sec at the women’s under-18 National Cross-Country Championships, which took place recently at the Spa Thermal Park in Taupo.

Next she is off to Australia to compete in the 2022 Australian Cross-Country Championships at Oakbank Racecourse in South Australia on Saturday.

She will be competing as part of the New Zealand secondary schools cross-country team and is looking forward to her first international competition.

"I’ve never been away for running before."

Catherine said she had always taken part in athletics but for the last couple of years she had begun to focus on cross-country.

She was sanguine about what her athletic future held. For now it was simply about having a good time.

"Just keep enjoying it ... just seeing it as far as it will take me."