{"id":364849,"date":"2024-02-02T20:35:49","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T21:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=364849"},"modified":"2024-02-02T23:02:29","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T23:02:29","slug":"frightening-sight-in-battle-to-fend-off-rival-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=364849","title":{"rendered":"'Frightening' sight in battle to fend off rival sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

A great of Australian sprinting\ufeff casts her eyes across school athletics<\/a> tracks and sees talent she describes as "frightening".<\/p>\n

Three-time Olympian<\/a> Melinda Gainsford-Taylor\ufeff makes the remark in the days following Torrie Lewis' record-breaking run<\/a>, in which the 19-year-old bolted down the straight in 11.10 seconds to become the fastest Australian woman in history.<\/p>\n

Gainsford-Taylor\ufeff has spent the past 10-12 years coaching primary school kids. She's also spent countless hours watching school kids of all ages in action at various meets.<\/p>\n

READ MORE\ufeff:<\/strong> The F1 legends who failed to fire with Ferrari<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Socceroos heartbreak as 'poor' finishing kills hopes\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE: \ufeff<\/strong>Four bolters picked by Slater as Origin prep begins<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Many remain in the sport into adulthood, enticed by a desire to run for Australia at the Olympics. But many more pull off their spikes and never touch them again, tempted by the prospect of pulling on a Matildas<\/a> jersey, or becoming a star of rugby sevens<\/a>, or reaching the bright lights of rugby league<\/a> or Aussie rules<\/a>, or donning the baggy green.<\/p>\n

The reality is that while neither rugby league nor Aussie rules offer the lure of the Olympics, football<\/a> and rugby sevens do, while cricket<\/a>, albeit only the T20 format, will join the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.<\/p>\n

\"Torrie<\/p>\n

"It is amazing\ufeff … I ask the kids, 'Who would like to run at the Olympics one day?', and they all put their hands up. It is just such an incredible thing, such a special thing," Gainsford-Taylor tells Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n

"I think one thing I've noticed being retired is the level of respect for being an Olympian will always be there, and the experience of being at the Olympics is just one that I don't think you can ever describe unless you've been a part of it."<\/p>\n

Matildas defender Ellie Carpenter and rugby sevens winger Kaitlin Shave were both stars on the track as kids.<\/p>\n

On the contrary, Josh Azzopardi, a Commonwealth Games sprinter with a 100m personal best of 10.15, was offered a sevens contract by Rugby Australia in 2019, but rejected it to pursue his athletics dream<\/a>.<\/p>\n

"I suppose I can just look at why I chose to be in an individual sport rather than a team sport," says Gainsford-Taylor, who's held the national women's 200m record since 1997.<\/p>\n

\"Australian<\/p>\n

"I think it comes down to whether you are a person who likes to do things individually or be part of a team.<\/p>\n

"It's actually so raw lining up on that line on your own the whole time. It's actually not an easy thing to do.\ufeff I think people underestimate it. But I could control the situation and I didn't have to rely on anyone else in that moment to be able to perform well.<\/p>\n

"But I think it does come down to personalities and individuals and how much they love being part of a team, or having that moment of being in control and where their outcomes are because of them.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffWhat we have to do as athletics coaches is get them to keep loving the sport and being involved in the sport."<\/p>\n

\"Australia's<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most exhilarating Australian junior sprinter \ufeffemerging currently is a 16-year-old Queenslander called Gout Gout. He's already run 10.43 in the 100m and 20.69 for 200m. Athletics Australia president Jane Flemming raved about the towering prodigy on 2GB's Wide World of Sports Radio this week, likening him to a young Usain Bolt<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Among the other exceptional junior Australian sprinters are\ufeff 17-year-old Perth product Olivia Dodds, who's run 11.48 for 100m and 23.68 for 200m, and 18-year-old Sydneysider Sebastian Sultana, who's clocked 10.27 for 100m and 20.79 for 200m.<\/p>\n

"There are a lot of kids running incredibly fast," Gainsford-Taylor says.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffI can't remember in the time that I was coming through the school system [in the 1970s and 1980s] that anyone was running that fast.<\/p>\n

\"Australian<\/p>\n

"I don't know if it's the shoes they're wearing, or maybe they're all training harder than they used to.<\/p>\n

"But there is an unbelievable amount of talent out there. It's just crazy. It's a bit mind-boggling, to be honest with you.<\/p>\n

"So let's hope they can continue that as adults and get to compete at a world level.<\/p>\n

"I went to the All Schools just recently in Perth [in December] and I was just flabbergasted at how fast these kids were running\ufeff.<\/p>\n

"It is pretty amazing to think of how much talent is around."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A great of Australian sprinting\ufeff casts her eyes across school athletics tracks and sees talent she describes as "frightening". Three-time Olympian Melinda Gainsford-Taylor\ufeff makes the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":363151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364849"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=364849"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":364854,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364849\/revisions\/364854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/363151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=364849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=364849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=364849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}