Gippsland’s light shines in Glasgow

SOUTH Gippsland is well represented at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games:
Leongatha school girl sensation Eleanor Paterson who high jumped 1.96 as a 17 year old last year.
She is the best female high jump prospect the world has seen in decades.
Kaila McKnight, our middle distance Track and Field hope, is also from Leongatha.
Kaila has been based in Germany for the past few weeks, running in European events to acclimatise for the games.
As she prepares for the 1500 metres heat on the night of Monday 28 Australian time, she is tapering; running less kilometres but jogging and doing short sprint sessions.
Kaila and Eleanor are rooming together at the games and moved from the pre-games training facility at Gateshead in the UK into the games village in Glasgow yesterday (Monday).
Kaila’s husband Brad Huchinson who has also arrived in Glasgow to support his wife, described her as a lot more settled this time.
“And rooming together is great for both her and Eleanor,” he said.
“It is great to know someone from home.”
Lisa Alexander coach of the Australian national netball team the Diamonds is coach of the Commonwealth Games team.
The people of the commonwealth nations will get used to seeing her face on their television screens in coming weeks as our netballers fly high.
She has coached 25 Tests for Australia since 2011, was coach of the Melbourne Phoenix in the former national league and is the 14th person to coach Australia’s netball team
And talented Wonthaggi Table Tennis Club player and umpire, Averil Roberts, is at the games as a table tennis umpire.
Roberts competes in A Grade table tennis at Wonthaggi and veterans events around Australia and on the international stage.
Most recently she played at Kilsyth International Stadium where she won several events but she is also an international accredited table tennis umpire with years of experience at World Championships, Paralympics and Commonwealth Games.
Like the other three South Gippslanders at the games in Glasgow she is an excellent ambassador for the region and her country at large.

High performance: under Lisa Alexander the netball team is set to thrill the nation.

Sailing: Eleanor Patterson is the world’s best female high jump prospect in decades.

Medal contention: Kaila McKnight has been acclimatising in Europe in the lead up to the games.

Short URL: /?p=11600

Posted by Sarah Vella on Jul 23 2014. Filed under Featured, Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry