Jeremy Gwao in his inimitable easy and encouraging style of writing told the story of 13 years old Ellen Wusia in his piece in the Solomon Times Online last Tuesday.
This is what he had to say about Ellen, and I quote his piece.
Ellen created history for her school when she scooped the National Secondary School Games (NSSG) 10,000-meter gold medal, clocking 45:22 ahead of thirty-nine other competitors.
At only thirteen years of age Ellen Wusia was one of the youngest athletes at the event, and now the first ever gold medalist for Wainoni Catholic Community High School in Makira province.
The soft-spoken Ellen comes from a big family; the third out of a family of nine, sibling rivalry in sports instilled in her a competitive mindset.
"I today represent my family, my province and my school and I am proud to have participated in the games. I know today they will be proud of my achievement and my school will have its first gold medal,” Ellen said shortly after the race.
"This is not just a game for me because I feel like I am representing my home and my province and to make them proud today is something else.”
Ellen said she pushed herself throughout the race, running to her own rhythm and momentum, keeping a watchful eye on other competitors.
The first obstacle for Ellen though was the huge crowd at Lawson Tama, she told herself to keep calm and remain focused.
"I nearly lost hope when I saw the huge crowd cheering, but in my mind, I kept telling myself to keep the pace, stay focused.
"I knew that setting the pace early will work for me, and I did that. I picked the pace with the last few laps and lucky my plan worked," Ellen said.
The gold medal is a personal achievement for Ellen, her highest achievement prior to the games was silver.
"My best finish before this was second runner up during a mini competition held at Kirakira and from that it motivated me to be part of the athletics team for this school carnival.”
Ellen’s team coach, Primo Higa, was full of praise as he spoke of Ellen’s performance at the games.
“Ellen is one of the outstanding runners in our school, and this is a big achievement especially coming from a community high school based in the province.
"She is a hard worker, and all that training has paid off with our first gold medal, she really deserves the win.”
End of quote.
Comments.
Congratulations, Ellen, on your fine achievement and well done in the thoughtful words you gave after your win.
Keep up the good sporting prowess and become a future winner of gold for the SI Olympic team.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short.
