BATHURST athlete Caitlin Reeves continues to make massive strides in her already brilliant young career on the track, taking out two NSW titles on the weekend at the State Championships.
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The hurdles specialist lined up in the 15 years girls 90-metre event as well as the 200m hurdles, an event used to assist in enabling sprint hurdlers to be able to get to the level required to race the 400m event, also an Olympic race.
Reeves won both of them, and in doing so proved herself to be one of the brightest future stars not only in Western athletics but in the entire state.
“It is pretty hard to explain the feeling when I realised I had won,” she said.
“It was obviously pretty good. I won the 200m first and in a way it took the pressure off a bit for the 90m but at the same time it didn’t – it was still pretty stressful by the time I lined up for it.
“I won the 200m by about three metres so it was a bit more comfortable. I think the 90m was about half a second or so, there wasn’t a lot in it.”
Reeves’ effort is made more impressive by the fact that she missed two months of training when she picked up an injury in November.
The road back to full fitness was a tough one which saw her training literally every day, often at twice the intensity of what she is generally used to.
Having feared initially that she would have missed the two biggest meets of the season, she was ready in time for the National Championships which were held a week before the State competition.
Though she didn’t pick up a medal, she still showed just how good she is.
“I finished sixth in the 100m hurdles there, that was in the under 17s age group, so in a way that result probably meant even more than the State title,” she explained.
“There was a lot of stress beforehand about whether I’d be able to get ready in time after missing those few months. The preparation was really intense.”
While Reeves is no stranger to medals at the elite level, this is the first time that she has stood on the top step of the podium.
Last year she picked up silver medals in the 90m hurdles and the triple-jump.
“I went into this year hoping to pick up a medal after what happened last year so it was a pretty nice shock to get two of them, both of them gold,” she said.
“The 200m race is a lot harder in terms of the training but the race itself is easier, you have a bit more time to think about what you’re doing and make sure you get everything right.
“I don’t have any more big carnivals for a while now. I’ve been told [by my coach] that I have to have a couple of weeks off now but I don’t really want to.”
