Blake defends 800m title

Blake Vanderwoude, a 16 year old athlete from Umina, is currently preparing for "The Allschools Championships" on October 9 and 10 at Homebush.

He is hoping to retain his 800 metre title.

Blake attends Narrabeen Sports High School and has done so since 2001.

His mother, Janelle Vanderwoude, said he was the first student to use the Palm Beach Ferry Service to get to the school.

She said there were now 120 school children who use the service daily.

Since 2003, Blake has been under the supervision of the NSW Institute of Sports' emerging middle distance squad.

He attends training camps at various locations in NSW including the Australian Institute of Sport with Dick Telford overseeing their training.

"The camps we are attending are full-on for seven days.

"These include psychology sessions, nutritional management and some mean sand-dunes," said Blake.

"Overall I get so much out of them, and training at top class facilities also helps.

"The other good thing about camps is they put you with guys who would normally be your rivals.

"We see the other side to each other."

Blake said he has had to lift his training program considerably since getting the scholarship and was finally seeing the fruits of his labour.

The Combined High Schools State Athletic meet held during September which saw Mr Vanderwoude compete in the 800 metre and 1500 metre events.

For the second year in a row, he won the 800 metres and for the third year in a row won the 1500 metres.

Mr Vanderwoude is now setting his sights on doing well at the nationals in December and qualifying for the World Youth Championships in Morrocco next July.

"With training this last year, my times have at last started coming down, particularly my 800 time.

"I would like to make it into the World Youth's as a stepping stone to World Juniors 2006 and with that should come qualifying times for the Commonwealth Games 2006."

E-mail, September 28 Janelle Vanderwoude