ALDAVILLA Primary School student Josh Hughes (pictured left) competed at the NSW PSSA Cross Country Championships at Eastern Creek late last month.
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This is the second time Josh has competed at the event, and he shows a great love for long distance running.
“I don’t get to train that much, but I love to run,” he said.
“I just run when I can and make it fun. If I wasn’t having fun, I wouldn’t be doing it.”
The race was set at a quick pace and Josh finished 44th out of the 80 competitors.
“I was a bit disappointed with my time, it seemed a really long 3km,” he said.
“I was hoping for top 20, but I did my best on the day and I was proud to represent my school.
“My family was there to support me and they were just happy if I finished with a smile on my face.
“Our North Coast team of six boys won the silver medal in the team event.
“We had some really good runners in our team who put in lots of hard work, Josh Mumford from Wollongbar came fifth and he gets to go to Nationals, so it was awesome.”
At just 11 years of age, Josh says there will be plenty of time for serious training as he gets older.
Right now it’s all just about having fun and enjoying the sport. He has been lucky enough to be helped over the last few weeks by former Kempsey man and fitness guru Paul Hamson.
He has advised Josh of the importance of not running everyday to allow his growing body to recover, and different training techniques which was a great help in the lead up to the event, which Josh will take on board for next season.
Josh plays a lot of different sports and has recently been selected in the Group 2 under 11s rugby league squad, and competed at the State Little Athletics carnival earlier this year.
Running just fits in around all the other sport Josh also enjoys. He would like to thank everyone at Aldavilla Primary School, especially Mrs Mickle for supporting his Cross Country journey this year.