Mears' focus on PBs rather than placings

Taieri College's Hamish Mears (17) trains at the Caledonian Ground this week ahead of the...
Taieri College's Hamish Mears (17) trains at the Caledonian Ground this week ahead of the national secondary schools track and field championships. PHOTO: LINDA ROBERTSON
Hamish Mears has a chance for a dream school athletics farewell.

The year 13 pupil will compete in the Taieri College colours for the final time at the national secondary school track and field championships which begin today.

On top of that, he will get to do it at the Caledonian Ground in front of a home crowd.

The 17-year-old won bronze in the senior boys shot put at last year's championships, while finishing fourth in the discus.

He will figure among the medal contenders in both events once again.

However, his focus is on the distances he will throw, rather than his placings.

Personal-bests are his goal and he is hoping to crack the 50m mark in the discus, while also surpassing 16m in the shot put.

History suggests it could be a good chance for Mears to pull those out.

"I get nervous, but I always seem to bring out my big throws in big competition which is sort of a good thing," he said.

"Most good competitions I know I've got a good chance of throwing out a PB, but it depends on the day."

Last year's championships were not Mears' only successes on the national stage.

He has won several other medals, most recently bronze in the under-18 and under-20 shot put at the New Zealand championships in March.

It tended to be the event he got the best results in, although he had a slight preference for the discus.

"I don't know, it's just with the spin, it's just a nice feeling when you get a good throw.

"Shot put's more like a glide and if you get a good throw you come forward and smack your big toe on the stop board and it's quite painful."

He had been doing athletics since the age of 7, although began to specialise in the throws through his high school years.

That came from seeing better results in those events, alongside being "not much of a runner".

He trained five to seven times a week and that had helped get him to where he is, although he had a certain amount of natural ability, he said.

"You could say I sort of just picked it up one day and seemed to be pretty good.

"When I started I was pretty much up there with all the other little kids I was competing against.

"So I was one of the top ones then and I've just carried it on through the years."

Next year, he hoped to secure a heavy diesel apprenticeship, ideally in Dunedin.

Athletics would continue to figure largely for him and making the world junior championships was a goal.

For now, his focus was on this weekend. Both of his events were on Sunday.

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