29 May 2025
As the 2024-2025 academic year comes to an end, so do Aspire Academy's regular athletics development competitions.
The events are held regularly throughout the year for under-14 and under-16 student-athletes, as well as girls who train at Aspire Academy, to offer them the opportunity to compete in a competitive environment.
There was a final development competition for several individual events, including the 60 metres, 60 metre hurdles, pole vault, and long jump, which also featured pre-academy athletes as they strove to impress and earn an invitation to join Aspire Academy permanently in September.
There was also a quadrathlon event, which saw boys and girls participate in four different disciplines over two afternoons, with points awarded in each event to determine the overall winners.
Events such as these utilise Aspire Academy's internationally approved technology, including an electronic starting gun and electronic timing mechanisms.
Peter Skoumal, Lead Athletics Coach at Aspire Academy, detailed why these carefully planned events are so important for young athletes.
"Our main idea is to engage our developing young athletes and teach them how to compete and how to behave in a competitive environment," he said.
"It is really important for them to understand what we are training for; we are training to compete at a high level."
"The big difference between this and training is that we really try to create a competition environment here, with the officials, with the timekeeping, and we are really looking to adhere to the official rules."
"All of this helps us teach the kids, and our athletes will learn from this, and they can later on perform better and better."
"It's a good sign that you're developing if you achieve good results in training, but where it really matters is in competition, for example, you can only set a personal best in a competition."
He added that the competitions are also very beneficial for the coaches.
"For us as coaches, it's always different to see your athlete in a competition setting, it allows us to see how they respond," he continued.
"We know that in training there is less pressure, this just adds a little more and helps us to identify and manage any issues we note with individual athletes. It's a very nice way to see the athletes' personalities coming to the fore."
The development athletes are continuing to train at Aspire Academy, and many of them are preparing for training camps and competitions in Europe over the next few months.