Having finished fourth at the recent Australian titles, Sydney University Elite Athlete Program (EAP) scholarship holder and discus thrower Alix Kennedy is aspiring to join an elite group of Australian athletes by representing her country in two different sports.
Kennedy, 20, threw a personal best of 51.51 metres at the national championships – short of an Olympic A qualifying of 62m and B standard 59.50m.
With the Olympics just around the corner Kennedy has set her sights on 2014 Commonwealth Games in Scotland.
While her discus ability is apparent, Kennedy has also played netball at a distinguished level.
She was part of the NSW under-19 side which won the Australian championships last year and captains the open-aged Sydney University team in the Waratah Cup – essentially a feeder competition to the ANZ Championships.
“My ultimate goal is to go to the Commonwealth Games in two sports,” Kennedy said.
“I’ve had calls from officials from both sports asking me to choose but I’m still managing to do both at the moment.
“The training compliments each other.”
She has been selected in Australia’s under-21 athletic team to travel to Taiwan and compete against Chinese Taipei’s Olympic hopefuls later this month.
Training for all but three weeks of the year, Kennedy balances her heavy practice regime while studying an intense double degree in commerce/law at Sydney University.
“I don’t have much spare time so I guess I use my time more efficiently,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy revealed she had sought guidance from her sometime training partner and Australian world champion Dani Samuels.
Samuels toyed with being a professional basketball player before deciding to commit herself full-time to the field of athletics.
“I spoke to her about it,” Kennedy said.
“She played basketball right up until the [2008] Olympics.”
Amazingly, the Caringbah High graduate only started Little Athletics out of sufferance.
“We lived down the road from Sylvania Waters Athletics Track and the announcers would always wake me up at 8am,” Kennedy said.
“So I thought that I would get into it seeing as I would already be awake.”
Kennedy leaves with the Australian team on May 22.
This article has been adapted from Michael Carayannis’s article in the St George and Sutherland Shire Leader.
