Tesni Ward is lighting up the under-17 category in three of the throwing disciplines, leading the rankings in the shot, discus and javelin at this early stage of the season.
Her 12.86m mark in the shot would have topped the under-17 rankings last year and her 43.08m in the javelin and 37.33m in the discus would both have ranked her in the top six in 2007, so even without improving, Tesni has more than a good chance of staying at the top of the rankings.
However, she is likely to improve it was not until last year that Tesni had a throws-specific coach and she hardly ever did technical or strength training. Instead, she worked in a multi-events group of about20 athletes under Alex Kruger at City of Sheffield AC, mainly practicing running and jumping.
Although this gave her a good fitness base, she admits she “was never made for running the 800m”. Kruger, himself a decathlete, attended the World Masters Championships last summer and when he went into training for that event Tesni asked Ivan Washington and Brian Parkes to coach her and has stayed with the pair since.
“I know that there is much more to come this year and that I will improve on my performances,” says Tesni. “It is only the start of the year and I am determined to prove to myself that I can do in competition what I can do in training”. “I originally set my targets at the end of last season, but have now upped them. And I know that when the time comes when I’m on top form and the conditions are favourable, they will fly and I will reach my new targets”.
“If someone else throws further than me, that’s okay as long as I have done my best and reached my own targets and improved through the season. I can’t worry about everybody else, but of course I hope that I will still be at the top of the rankings at the end of the year”
Statistically speaking, javelin is Tesni’s best event and she lies at 10th on the UK all-time under 17 rankings with her current PB. However, Tesni has no plans to drop any of the events at the moment to specialise in one.
“I was planning on dropping shot next year, until my first indoor performance 12.86m at the Welsh Indoor Championships, (which was also a New Championship Best Performance beating the previous record set 26 years ago in 1982 by Jayne Richardson with 11.82m) made me think twice and I feel that only my discus performance this season can be improved on greatly”, said Tesni.
Both my coaches think I should stick at them until I am positive that I am making the right choice, and I agree with them. At the moment, I feel it could go any way so I will stick with them all for the foreseeable future”
This extract was taken from Athletics Weekly April 24th 2008
