Fenella

“Hi, I’m Fenella. Nelly. Fenella’s ok. I prefer Nelly but I wouldn’t want to change my name to it. I had Nell in my name and then Mum wanted a family name in it so someone in her family was called Nelly and we added a ‘y’. It’s a nickname but not everyone can use it, just my friends and my family.

I watch the Olympics sometimes. I want to be an Olympian when I grow up and win and be the best in the world. I like running that much! That’s my goal.

I started running because my sister started running and she was in a club and I saw her run every Saturday. When I was old enough, I joined and I liked it, so I kept going.

I do training with the club and with my trainer Louis and he made us do sprints with weights on our backs. Like we pull them along [on the ground] while we’re sprinting. It’s hard! And we had to pull people along, people that are slower than us.

Sometimes after crossing line it feels like you’re going to collapse but that’s how I know I’ve had a good run. This weekend was the Canterbury Children’s Athletics Champs and my fastest race, for 1500m. I came first! My legs went stiff [from the race] and they are still stiff now. This is a big deal, I trained all season for it. I hope it means I can make the Canterbury Children’s Athletics Team. They do the Triangular Meet in Nelson and you compete against Tasman and Otago. I did it last year and I want to do it again this year. Yes, I still do all the events, but…I don’t like shotput, no, no, no!

-Fenella