Athletics: Tamworth thrower Olivia Earl shines on national and state stage

Now the Tamworth youngster is a national champion.

Earlier this month at the Australian Track and Field Championships, Earl won gold in the under-15 para discus with a personal best throw of 25.70m.

She also picked up silver in the shot put and bronze in the under-17s javelin, continuing what has been a medal-winning, record-breaking and hectic start to the year.

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There has barely been a weekend where the Tamworth Little Athletics Club member hasn't been competing somewhere around the state.

Often competing against throwers three-four years, even six years, her senior, the 11-year has achieved some outstanding results, even surprising herself.

Reflecting on her efforts at the nationals, Earl said she "never thought" she "would end up with a medal", let alone a gold medal "or medal in all three of my throwing events".

Being her first time competing at a national level, she was admittedly nervous going in.

That wasn't helped by a week before learning that the javelin was under-17s and she would be competing against girls much older than her and "with more experience".

The nerves wouldn't have been lessened by the "horrible, cold and windy" conditions that greeted her for her first event, which was the shot put. But she managed to throw her way to silver.

Fortunately the conditions were a lot more favourable on the Saturday for her favourite event - the discus.

Bouyed by her shot put silver and knowing she had put in the work, Earl said she knew she "just had to do what I had been doing at training and stay strong and fight the nerves with the older girls putting on the pressure".

Going into the javelin, she spoke about knowing she "just had to go out hard and throw my best", which she did, throwing a pb 15.03m to come away with the bronze.

Earl had qualified to compete at the nationals back in February at the NSW Juniors championships, where she placed second in both the shot put and discus and won the under-15s javelin.

Returning to Sydney a couple of weeks later for the Little Athletics State Championships, she won her 11-12-years shot put and discus, and picked up silver in the para long jump. She also achieved pb's in the under-12 javelin and 100m.

That came after a record-breaking performance at the Region 1 Championships held in Tamworth with Earl setting new benchmarks in the under-12 para discus (22.7m) and para long jump (1.81m). She also won the para shot put and 100m and was second in the able bodied javelin.

Her fantastic results also included gold in the under-13 able bodied discus, under-14 para discus and under-12 para shot put, and silver in under-13 able bodied shot put and javelin at the NSW Athletics Country Championships.

"With the NSW juniors, Country Championships and Australian Track and Field Championships I had to throw heavier weights as I had to compete up age groups," Earl said.

"It was hard to adjust to the different weights as one weekend I would have to throw the lighter weight then the following I would be throwing the heavier weight."

She is now enjoying a well earned rest before turning her attention to the schools competitions.

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