Triathlete Eve Kelleher is this year’s Saddle Hill Community Board youth ambassador and has been granted $1000 towards her sporting development.
The Queen’s High School year 11 student has had a busy 12 months.
She claimed first in her category at the Gore Summer Challenge Triathlon and in the Otago club championship steeplechase (under-16), and also took first in the 3000m and 1500m at the Otago secondary schools athletics.
She also placed second at the Wānaka Challenge Sprint Triathlon (under-16 Otago champion) and at the New Zealand Schools Triathlon Championships (under-14 girls).
She has taken part in a range of other competitions where she achieved strong results.
Eve said a key aim was to be selected for the New Zealand Triathlon development squad.
To help her reach that goal, she planned to accelerate her training by engaging a dedicated coach to improve her performance in swimming, cycling and running.
"To get into the development squad, there are certain standards I have to meet."
She needed to post finish times beneath the prescribed benchmarks in both the 1500m run and the 200m swim.
"At the moment, I am about 10 seconds off the 1500 time and about 15 seconds off the swimming time."
These times were already an improvement on her previous benchmarks.
"I'm hoping that a coach would help me get to those next levels to try to get on that squad."
Representing her country while still in high school would be a great opportunity as well as allowing her to race against some amazing athletes, she said.
There are quite a few coaches associated with the Dunedin Tri Club, such as Richard McKinlay, who she was considering.
"He is more of a dedicated swimming coach, but does all three disciplines as well.
"I have already had a few sessions with him in the pool, so I'm getting a bit of coaching through that at the moment.
"I would probably go to him for my main triathlon coach."
There is much Eve hoped to accomplish in the future as she continued to work towards securing a place on the New Zealand triathlon development squad.
"Being in that squad would help me compete for New Zealand in the junior world championships, which is my ultimate goal for next season and my year 13 season."
