By David Nagel
Hudson McKay is living proof that time flies when you’re having fun with the 10-year-old set to represent Victoria in the Pacific School Games to be held in Adelaide in early December.
The St Mary’s Primary School student from Berwick will run for his state in the 200-metre sprint and relay after finishing second in the School Sport Victoria State Championships at Lakeside Stadium recently.
Hudson, who joined Casey Little Athletics – now Berwick Little Athletics – when he was five, has put quite a record together after spending half of his young life at the club.
He has broken centre records at Berwick in the 100 and 200-metre sprints, as well as the 400 metres, and equalled the centre’s high jump record which stood for 12 years.
He has also won the junior champion award at Berwick and is a multiple gold medallist at the Gippsland championships and a multiple finalist at state level.
But qualifying for the Pacific Games takes things to a whole new level altogether.
“I’m really excited about representing Victoria,” Hudson said, before explaining how he qualified for the big event.
“We ran a heat and had to qualify top eight to get into the final. I finished second in my heat and qualified, and then ran second in the final.”
Hudson, who has a personal best of 29.13, said he had improved his running a lot in recent times. He puts that down to some astute coaching from dad Ben and the coaches he has at Berwick.
“I wasn’t that fast when I started, but my parents did a little bit of Little Athletics when they were younger and they thought I might like it and it just went on from there,” he said.
“I’ve made a lot of improvement recently and working on my technique is only going to make me run faster as I get older. All the coaches at Berwick, and dad, have helped me out heaps along the way.”
Hudson is a true all-rounder with basketball, football and swimming all forming part of his sporting adventure. But it’s little athletics that he truly loves most.
“I do love it, because there’s lot of variety in what you can do with throwing, jumping, long-distance events, and the variety is what I love most,” he said.
Hudson has one of his running singlets signed by sprinting legend Usain Bolt which hangs proudly from his bedroom wall. He hopes to emulate the style of Bolt when he takes to the starting blocks in Adelaide.
“I have to make sure I explode out of the starting line and really drive my arms forward,” he said.
“Then it’s about getting in to your main stride, trying to relax, staying calm and have fun and just run as fast as you can.”
That’s the spirit Hudson … time flies when you’re having fun!
