Launching like a pro

Nirvana Hepi-Breen with one of the tools of her trade. Photo: Gregor Richardson
Nirvana Hepi-Breen with one of the tools of her trade. Photo: Gregor Richardson
Nirvana Hepi-Breen has a gift for throwing.

It seems in the field it does not matter if it is a shot put, a discus or a hammer, she can give it a hurl.

The Kaikorai Valley College year 11 pupil set a record in the hammer at the Otago secondary schools athletics championships last Saturday at the Caledonian Ground.

Hepi-Breen, who turned 15 in January, threw the hammer 44.56m in the under-15 grade, which beat the old record by a whopping 10.54m.

She had already smashed a couple of school records at the college’s athletics championships in February.

She set a new mark in the under-15 grade in the discus at 35.62m, beating the old mark by nearly 9m, which was set 51 years ago.

In the shot put, she set a mark of 10.77m, beating the record of 10.45m set 31 years ago.

She had been introduced to the sport at a young age, about 5, and was drawn to the throwing events. The shot put was a favourite but she was rapidly developing a liking for the hammer.

She had only taken it up 18 months ago but with some help from coach Howden Finnie she was finding it fun. She said it was different from other events as it involved turning and showing some speed.

She ended up going to the national secondary school championships last year in Wellington and came fourth in the junior girls hammer which was a good effort considering she was only 14 at the time.

Her goals were simply to get better and take all the opportunities which came along. The combined Otago-Southland championships are no longer held so her final event for the season would be the South Island schools athletics championships in Christchurch, if it goes ahead.

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