Fresh from his silver medal-winning performance at the Australian All Schools Athletics Championships in Adelaide, Mitch Henderson will turn his focus to another sporting passion – cricket.
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The talented sporting allrounder will pad up for City United in their third grade clash with North Tamworth on Saturday.
Also part of the Tamworth under 15s side, he will play for them at the annual Walter Taylor Shield carnival in Armidale in January.
“We’re pretty pumped as a team for that,” he said.
Picking up a Blue for athletics at Friday’s North West Schools Sports Association annual presentation, the Farrer student said his achievements in Adelaide are still sinking in.
Competing at his first nationals, he won silver in the 16yrs 200m hurdles.
“It’s pretty crazy it ended up like this,” he said.
“Being a year young and all coming into the event there was no pressure, no-one expected too much.”
Himself included.
After finishing second in his heat with a personal best time of 26.70secs Henderson then had a nervous wait to see what the second heat produced.
“I thought the second heat might have been a bit faster,” he said.
Only one runner was though, and with the winner of his heat hailing from Macau, Henderson was awarded the silver medal.
He’d earlier picked up silver in the NSW All Schools after finishing fifth at the Combined High Schools Championships.
“Then I decided to work on my hurdles,” he said.
Focusing on his speed and stamina, the hard work has paid off.
Each run Henderson has improved.
“From CHS I’ve improved two seconds,” he said.
“It just shows if you put in it pays off.”
Also a talented league player, Henderson said he will probably keep training over the summer to keep him in good shape and help with his speed for next season.
“It’s a big advantage for footy when you are fit and quick,” he said.