A CHANCE sighting at an interschool athletics carnival may have steered Taylah Cruttenden to a stack of gold medals.
The teenage sprinter was competing in a 100 metre race when she was spotted by a teacher from another school.
Her mother Jayne said the teacher told her he’d never seen anyone her age run so quick.
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READ NOW“He said to me ‘is she doing little athletics?’ and I said no and he said ‘Get her into it straight away’,” she said.
The 13-year-old is currently undefeated in the 100 metres over the past two years and finished last season with a gold medal in the under-15 100 metres at the Australian Athletics Championships.
She added to her medal tally with another gold in the under-16 4×200 metre relay and a silver in the under-15 200 metres.
The Byford Secondary College student also won gold in the under-15 100 and 200 metres at the WA State Championships and has a 12.10 second personal best for the 100.
Cruttenden said she had lofty goals for her future, but knew she was going to have to work hard to get there.
“It’d be nice to make an Australian team, probably juniors first, then World Championships and then one day, hopefully the Olympics,” she said.
“I’m just working on my technique at the moment, trying to fix it up and then get some more speed work done.”
Cruttenden credited her coach Russell Mathanda for her recent success and was hopeful of beating 12 seconds for the 100 metres with his help.
Name: Taylah Cruttenden Age: 13 Category: Local Sports Star – Individual Sport: Athletics
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