Alesha Bennetts won two silver medals at the Coles Australian Little Athletics Championships

Not much has changed for Mudgee’s Alesha Bennetts… she still loves spaghetti, and she’s still killing it on the running track.

The 13-year-old just returned from the Gold Coast where she was the solitary Mid-Western representative at the Australian Little Athletics Championships.

After a four-day camp that acted as a massive learning curve for Alesha, she returned to Mudgee with a pair of silver medals that she earned in the 200 metre run and the 4 x 100 metre relay.

The theme of the trip was to encourage the competitors to stick with their teammates and to avoid parent interaction in order to improve their independence and prepare them for a career in athletics.

So even though her dad travelled to Queensland with her, she didn’t see much of him when she got there.

“It was a team stay with team dinners and team interaction. That was the focus of it,” said Alesha’s mum Kristy.

“There was no parent interaction and she always had to be in at least a group of four.”

Alesha had the confidence she could work her way through the camp on her own but to actually do it gave her satisfaction.

“I figured I could do it by myself,” Alesha said.

“I packed my bags, remembered my spikes and fixed my shoes… and my spaghetti.

“They’re trying to get us ready for what we have to do when we’re older.”

These methods paid off for New South Wales as it came away with the total points scored for the event and was the most successful state over the four-day event.

OFF AND RUNNING: Alesha Bennetts scored a silver medal in the 200 metre event at the Gold Coast.

The 100 metre run – Alesha’s bread and butter – was highlighted by a false start from another runner which threw a spanner into the works.

“I had a really bad start and had to try to catch up to everyone,” Alesha said.

Alesha ran fourth but the time she clocked would have been good enough to run second at the NSW state event at Homebush just gone.

It’s time for a break for Alesha as the Little Athletics season doesn’t kick back off until September but there’s still plenty of training to be had, as well as a cross country event between Central West schools at Orange.

“Hill sprints are my favourite,” she said.

“Before Adelaide I got to choose one type of training and chose them.”

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