In her own words: Kennedy Taylor
Kennedy Taylor has made a strong impression on athletics this year. Early in the season the year-9 SGHS student demolished the Southland Schools U14 record, a mark previously held by another Taylor, Christina (no relation).
Christina set the standard back in 2006 then captured every Southland secondary schools 3000m record as she progressed through the grades. Kennedy took nearly half a minute off that record, one set by someone who later won NZ championships and represented NZ overseas.
In the winter Kennedy won the Southland secondary schools U14 crosscountry championships by a substantial margin then secured a silver medal in the NZ Secondary Schools crosscountry champs.
Her next major goal is a win in the national secondary schools road race early next month.
Sometime in the future however, Kennedy will have to choose. The multi-talented sports-mad 14-year-old excels at touch, rugby, basketball, cycling, swimming, triathlons as well as athletics. While involvement in a number of sports is recommended for youngsters, somewhere in the future a degree of specialisation will be required.
Has she got any preferences? We got Lance Smith to find out.
What sports do you think you will take up seriously later on?
I love all the sports that I participate in but if I had to choose I would pick athletics, triathlon and basketball.
What are your favourites now?
I enjoy all my sports for different reasons! That’s why I play them. I learn different things from each sport as well as gaining fitness. I also enjoy meeting new people. I love the personal satisfaction of individual sports but also enjoy the atmosphere of team sports.
How do you balance all these sports and training with family and school life?
It can be hard to manage but I usually get organised by preparing ahead of time, I plan out my week so I can fit everything in and I do early morning trainings plus after school trainings. A lot of my friends do the same sports as me, but I also have made new friends through sports that I get to see so that’s a lot of my time to socialise. When we have sports tournaments we sometimes go away as a family and try and make it like a holiday.
You come from a sporting family (brothers Jaxon and Josh have been very prominent in triathlons, cycling and running). Is there pressure (your own or other’s) to follow their achievements?
I always have high expectations of myself to do well as my brothers have done well with their sports but I just try my best and if it doesn’t go the way I want, I work harder to try and do better next time. I always try to bring an aspect of fun into my training and competitions to keep me relaxed and enthusiastic as I know I am still young and hopefully have many years left to compete.
Have you changed your tactics for this year’s NZSS road race knowing Bella Earl (gold medal winner in Kennedy’s NZ schools crosscountry) is not running (she is entered in 1500m and steeplechase)?
I think of all of my competitors as hard competition so I am just going to run as hard as I can and try and stick with the front group. I don't try to focus on others, but my own race.
How long have you been in athletics and what got you started?
I have been doing athletics since I was 5, just for fun competing in all the events and then moving into long distance when I was about 11. I have always looked up to my brothers and as they were doing athletics, I would always come along to trainings with them and would jump in with them when I could! I loved it right from the beginning and I knew as soon as I was old enough I wanted to get into training and competitions seriously.
What’s ahead for you for the rest of the season?
Definitely National Athletics and South Islands early next year which is my short-term competitions but for other sports I have Future Champions triathlon festival in December and National Triathlon coming up in February.
What are your future long-term goals?
In the near future I would like to keep competing nationally for athletics and triathlon hopefully placing along the way. I would also love to go to America for one of my preferred sports to train and go to Uni, but that is in the far future, my goal is to represent New Zealand in the Olympics, world championships etc.
What is your proudest sporting moment so far?
My proudest sporting moment would definitely have to be either getting 2nd at the national cross country championships this year as I felt like I had put in the hard work and deserved the reward or winning the National Triathlon Champs last year as I had been coming back from an injury the previous season.
What other sports do you do or have done?
I have competed in many sports such as swimming, triathlon, touch, rock n roll, athletics, netball, basketball, rugby 10’s, rugby 7’s, cycling, soccer while also competing at Southland or national level for some of these sports such as rugby 7’s, touch, basketball, triathlon, athletics, cross country and rock n roll.
