One day Mollie Blackman hopes to represent Australia and with the potential she is showing, it's well within her reach.
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The 14-year-old recently competed at the NSW State Youth Championships where she was awarded her first medal, a silver in shot put.
During the competition, Mollie also achieved a finalist position in discus, finishing 8th overall with a throw of 30.23 metres (personal best).
For some time Mollie has been striving to achieve a throw of 11 metres in shot put and with a bit of confidence heading into the competition, she was able to hit her goal.
"It felt amazing to finally get over 11 metres in the shot put, and bearing a throw I've never beared before, getting past there felt amazing," she said.
"11 metres has been my aim for a long time. I've been hitting it in training sessions a lot, the biggest I've thrown in training is 11.71 [metres].
"Getting over 11 in competition was what I was aiming for. I was hoping to get that in the junior champs but I didn't. I came into State thinking 'Yeah, I'm going to throw it here' and I did it [11.8 metres] on my first go.
"I put myself under a lot of stress during competition and this one I wasn't really under a lot, I was feeling pumped rather than stressed."
Thanks to her impressive hammer throw (31.04 metres) earlier in the year at the NSW Junior Athletics Championships, Mollie has been selected in the NSW State team to compete at the Australian Junior Championships on April 12.
"I'm excited, it's going to be a new experience," she said.
2021 is the year of Mollie with the Mudgee product achieving other impressive results at the Junior Championships including a 6th place in shot put where she threw 10.61 metres.
After achieving her 11 metre shot put goal, Mollie now has her sites set on one day representing Australia in field athletics.
"In the future hopefully I can make the Australian team. It would feel amazing to compete for the home country, get out there and smash the," she said.
Mollie does weight training twice a week, speed training twice a week with Kristy Bennetts and hammer throw practice three times a week with coach Ernie Shankleton.
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