Mearns medals three times at national titles

Amaya Mearns, pictured above, achieved a memorable hat-trick at the Australian Track and Field Championships in Sydney.

Three times the 14-year-old from Samford Valley stepped up onto the medal podium to receive silver and bronze medals.

Competing for Queensland, the St Paul’s School student was second in the girls’ Under 15 200m final clocking a personal best 25.11 seconds.

Mearns' Year 9 class at the Bald Hills school supported her by watching the race on a livestream.

Personal bests

That was followed by a second silver in the Under 16 4x100m relay and bronze with the state’s 4x200m relay team.

Mearns was fourth in the under 15 girls 100m final, stopping the clock at 12.32 seconds – another personal best by .3 of a second, the same as the 200m.

In her fifth event the Arana Little Athletics member was seventh in the long jump recording a best leap of 4.99m.

Working hard this year with sprint coach Andrew Iselin and jumps coaches Anna and Clint Harvey paid off with improvements on last year’s bronze at 200m and fifth in 100m.

Olympic goal

Mearns trains with Mayne Harriers at Windsor and had health and flood challenges to overcome in the build-up to the games.

However, she had a sizeable cheer squad including her mum, dad (who flew from Perth after a two-month work stint), grandmother Ann Gerhardt, from Yugar, a three-time Queensland 100 yard sprint medallist and Sydney-based cousins and an aunt.

Mearns will take a break now and then start preparing for her winter athletics schedule. Ultimately her goal is the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane.