Overton striving to win two club titles in four days

Laura Overton at the Edgar Centre this week as she prepares to play finals in both the club netball and basketball competitions. Photo: Gerard O'Brien

Laura Overton has the chance to complete two unbeaten seasons in the space of four days.

The talented all-rounder will play for Phys Ed A in today’s premier club netball final against the Southern Magpies.

Then on Tuesday she will play for the South Pac Magic against Ajax in the women’s club basketball final.

Both teams have gone through their seasons unbeaten.

Not bad for someone who only picked up basketball to rest her injured elbow from javelin training — an event she in which she won the senior national championship two years ago.

"It’s a pretty exciting week ahead," the 21-year-old said.

"Everyone’s sort of pumped up for the games and we’re really excited. Right now my focus is on today for the netball though, but once that’s over the basketball focus will be on the mind."

To win both, her teams will have to beat the defending champions.

Indeed, both opponents have had strangleholds on their respective titles in recent years.

The Southern Magpies have won the past six netball championships, Overton having finished second twice in her three seasons with Phys Ed.

She said they were tough to play against, although she felt this was a talented Phys Ed team and had a great culture instilled by coach Alice Wells.

Indeed, it has quality right throughout the court and plenty of depth to bolster its ranks too.

In the basketball, the Magic won the title in 2016, but that had been a small blip in an era of Ajax dominance.

This will be Overton’s first basketball final in Dunedin, having not played the sport since leaving Southland Girls’ High School.

She gave it away when she moved up the road to study physical education four years ago in order to focus on netball and javelin.

It was a move that yielded success.

She notably came second at the under-19 national netball championships with the Dunedin team in her first year.

She has also been one of the top-ranked javelin throwers in the country and in 2016 won the national title.

A year later, she claimed a bronze medal at the national championships with a personal-best throw of 48.99m.

However, an elbow injury forced her to withdraw from the championships last year and she is now focusing on getting that right.

As javelin was a high-impact sport, she had decided to take a break from it.

Instead, she decided to return to basketball and is providing the Magic with an inside presence.

She was unsure what the athletics season held and said it would depend on how her elbow progressed. However, she said she liked the diversity of the different sports.

"I really enjoy the team sport like netball and then going to an individual sport like javelin."

She finishes her degree at the end of the year and is unsure what she will do next year.