Glen Innes pair to contest Oceania Area Championships. <\/p>\n
INTERNATIONAL MEET: Mikielee Snow and Gracie Martin at last year's NSW Juniors Athletics Championships. The pair will represent Regional Australia at the Oceania Area Championships next week. <\/p>\n
Young stars of the athletics track, Gracie Martin and Mikielee Snow, have stepped up their training in preparation for the Oceania Championships. <\/p>\n
The Glen Innes pair were both selected for the Regional Australia team, alongside three of their Armidale Athletics Club teammates. <\/p>\n
Martin withdrew from theMelanesian event in Fiji last year but is fit and firing to line up at the starting blocks. <\/p>\n
She will take her place at the start of the 200 metre and 400 metre races. <\/p>\n
My training is going very well, it has probably been the best lead up I have had to a competition in a while, she said.<\/p>\n
My off season training started off with longer slower paced runs to help build my base fitness.<\/p>\n
Now as it gets closer to competition, we are sharpening up with some shorter speed sessions. <\/p>\n
Snow competed last year and finished with a pair of bronze medals from the 4x100m and the medley relay teams. <\/p>\n
She also made the finals in her races last year, a feat which she hopes to repeat at the Oceania Championships. <\/p>\n
While she is a year older in the under 18 age group, Snow is expecting to come up against even speedier runners at this years meet. <\/p>\n
The competition is definitely going to be tougher this year as there are way more countries then last year, she said.<\/p>\n
I have around 25 in both my 100m and 200m and most of these athletes are older then me.<\/p>\n
I am expecting some high level competition at this meet and a great chance to see how my training has been going and where I am at. <\/p>\n
I am hoping to achieve a new personal best in either the 100m or the 200m, or even both would be great.<\/p>\n
I would also like to make it to the finals in both the 100m and 200m.<\/p>\n
The girls daily schedules are packed in the lead up to the meet, fitting in schoolwork and training for an international competition. <\/p>\n
This years preparation has been going very well. I have had no injurieswhich is great, Snow said. <\/p>\n
I have been doing a lot of track sessions and also gym and core sessions as well.<\/p>\n
I also have been doing a lot of mobility work over the months of preparation.<\/p>\n
Snow said the Championships are a highlight on her athletics calendar and excited to be travelling alongside her clubmates. <\/p>\n
I am looking forward to both the amazing experience to compete with athletes from different places and to be going over with my Armidale teammates and other athletes that I have become friends with over my athletics career, she said.<\/p>\n
The athletes will make their way to Fiji on Monday, before the opening ceremony on Wednesday and the girls start their eventson Thursday.<\/p>\n
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Sights set on Fiji - Glen Innes Examiner<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Glen Innes pair to contest Oceania Area Championships. INTERNATIONAL MEET: Mikielee Snow and Gracie Martin at last year's NSW Juniors Athletics Championships Continue reading