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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine

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Speaker 1: from Newstalk ZEDB.

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Speaker 2: Twenty twenty six track and field summer circuit kicks off

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Speaker 2: today with the Pots Classic in Hastings. It includes the

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Speaker 2: inaugural twenty twenty six New Zealand Short Track Championships. Some

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Speaker 2: big names involved today. The headline clash the men's eight

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Speaker 2: hundred meters Sam Tanner and teen prodigy Sam Ruth going

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Speaker 2: head to head at seven thirty five tonight, and there's

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Speaker 2: mail around that Sam Tanner is going to look to

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Speaker 2: break the eight hundred meter national record in that particular

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Speaker 2: race seven thirty five tonight, and the women sprints, all

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Speaker 2: eyes on Zoey Hobbs in the sixty meters. She's chasing

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Speaker 2: the world indoor qualifying mark of seven point two oh

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Speaker 2: seconds ahead of those championships in March. And on the

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Speaker 2: men's side, Tnwilpton will have his eyes on the sixty

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Speaker 2: meter men's title. Among the competitors in the women's sixty

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Speaker 2: meter hurdles, which are scheduled for five five this afternoon,

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Speaker 2: is heptathlete Brianna Stevenson, who joins us now. Brianna, thanks

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Speaker 2: for chatting on the day of the event. How often

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Speaker 2: have you run this event, the sixty meter hurdles.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks so much for taking the time. I've actually

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Speaker 3: only done one sixty meter hurdles race so far. I

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Speaker 3: did one beginning of November last year, so yeah, that

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Speaker 3: was my first sixty hurdles and looking forward to doing

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Speaker 3: it again today.

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Speaker 2: How different is I mean, obviously it's forty meters shorter

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Speaker 2: than or fifty meters shorter than the one hundred and

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Speaker 2: ten meter hurdles you do, or one hundred hurdles rather

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Speaker 2: you do in a heptathlon. How different is the strategy

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Speaker 2: for a shorter race.

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Speaker 3: I'd say the strategy is all pretty much the same,

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Speaker 3: to be honest. The distance itself is one that I

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Speaker 3: trained quite a lot at training, so yeah, it's really

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Speaker 3: just about attacking heart of those first five hurdles, so

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Speaker 3: you actually only go with five hurdles, which really suits

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Speaker 3: my strengths and that I'm quite a strong starter and

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Speaker 3: usually attack the beginning of the race really well. I've

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Speaker 3: definitely tidied up my back into the race over the

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Speaker 3: one hundred meter hurdles, which is awesome for the hundred

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Speaker 3: but yeah, it means that the sixty meter hurdles could

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Speaker 3: be a real strength for me.

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Speaker 2: You come in in brilliant form. You hit the Commonwealth

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Speaker 2: Games A standard for the heptathlon at an event in

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Speaker 2: Brisbane last weekend, a PB of six thousand and ninety

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Speaker 2: eight points, forty eight better than the A standard. Had

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Speaker 2: you specifically targeted that Brisbane event to do that, Yeah.

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Speaker 4: Pretty much.

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Speaker 3: My coach and I have had a pretty clear plan

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Speaker 3: for quite a while now to kind of check off

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Speaker 3: some of these milestones, and the Queensland Combined Events Championships

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Speaker 3: is one that we've targeted for the last couple of

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Speaker 3: years just because it's warm and there are a few

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Speaker 3: more competitors as well, So it was definitely going over

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Speaker 3: there with the A standard in sight and just super

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Speaker 3: happy and relieved to have tipped that off pretty early.

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Speaker 3: And obviously to have reached the milestone of six thousand

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Speaker 3: points is a pretty big one for a hiptan athlete

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Speaker 3: as well.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, and PB's if I'm not mistaken, in the two

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Speaker 2: hundred meters and the shot put. Had you specifically prepped

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Speaker 2: for those two events in particular?

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Speaker 3: Shotput, Yes, Previously, shotput has been an event that I've

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Speaker 3: really struggled with. It's definitely been an event where I've

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Speaker 3: lost quite a lot of points relative to my strengths

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Speaker 3: in the sprints and the jumps, So that one was

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Speaker 3: a long time coming. We've put a lot of work

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Speaker 3: into that myself and Matthew White, my coach, also helped

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Speaker 3: the season by Kirsten Talier as well, So yeah, we've

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Speaker 3: made a lot of progress there, obviously with a competition,

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Speaker 3: and then yeah, the two hundred meters came as quite

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Speaker 3: a surprise to me, to be honest. My coach was like,

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Speaker 3: I knew it was coming, but yeah, I was pretty

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Speaker 3: shocked when I crossed the line.

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Speaker 4: And it's the twenty three fifty four.

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Speaker 2: And you've I mean, this is now PB's in all

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Speaker 2: seven individual heptatlon events in the last year for you,

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Speaker 2: plus your best ever heptathlon total. Can you tell us

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Speaker 2: how you've managed such significant improvements across the board last

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Speaker 2: twelve months.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's pretty crazy when you put it like that.

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Speaker 3: I guess last season was super special, obviously ticking off

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Speaker 3: a few really big I guess kind of accolades within

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Speaker 3: the hiptathon, but also before so I had a second

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Speaker 3: knee surgery at the beginning of twenty twenty two, and

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Speaker 3: that's when I transitioned to hiptathlon from long jump. So yeah,

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Speaker 3: breaking my long jump PB last year was a really

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Speaker 3: big moment for me, given I hadn't done that since

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Speaker 3: before my knee surgery, and long jump was kind of

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Speaker 3: my original love. But yeah, I think I just have

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Speaker 3: a really incredible team around me who keep my mind

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Speaker 3: and my body in the right place, a really awesome

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Speaker 3: support system, my family, my friends, my partner, and also

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Speaker 3: I stepped back from kind of a full time job

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Speaker 3: as well in twenty twenty four, which has really enabled

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Speaker 3: me to put more into it, especially given hiptathlon, as

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Speaker 3: you said, as seven events, it requires a lot more

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Speaker 3: training and recovery as well. So yeah, just taking that

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Speaker 3: time back to actually invest as much as I can

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Speaker 3: and into the sport has really paid off.

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Speaker 2: It really has. You've obviously struck the brilliant formula. I'm

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Speaker 2: curious though, when you're looking for improvements in your heptatle

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Speaker 2: on score, do you try to do better in your

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Speaker 2: stronger events or as with the shotput as you mentioned,

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Speaker 2: do you try to improve the ones that maybe you

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Speaker 2: don't enjoy so much.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess we're kind of getting to the point

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Speaker 3: now where we look at all the.

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Speaker 4: Events and see how many points we can.

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Speaker 3: Realistically grab depending on what the I guess realistic improvement

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Speaker 3: in each event is. Shotput was one of those very

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Speaker 3: clear ones where we knew there was a huge deficit there,

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Speaker 3: so that's why we've.

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Speaker 4: Put so much time and energy into it.

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Speaker 3: Javelin is one of those ones as well that I

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Speaker 3: can definitely improve on and gain a few more points there.

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Speaker 3: And then also, as I said, with my long jump,

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Speaker 3: I've had a lot of improvement in the last year

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Speaker 3: and a half and my coach and I have put

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Speaker 3: a lot of work into it, and so as I said,

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Speaker 3: that's kind of one of the events where we feel

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Speaker 3: like I can really grab a whole lot more points.

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Speaker 3: But it is about the small margins now and just

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Speaker 3: obviously trying to get all of those events going well

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Speaker 3: at the same time in one weekend. That's the nature

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Speaker 3: of hip tathlon. So yeah, working really hard to make

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Speaker 3: those small gains where we can.

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Speaker 2: So does this mean you'll definitely go to Glasgow now?

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Speaker 2: Does it just need to tick from Athletics New Zealand

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Speaker 2: for you to now go? Now that you've reached the

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Speaker 2: A standard. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Essentially Athletics New Zealand and the NDC selects the

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Speaker 3: teams and there's a there's a heap of policy and

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Speaker 3: criteria for being selected. So I sitting in a very

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Speaker 3: good spot at the moment, and we'll still watiently, patiently

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Speaker 3: await confirmation of that, but pretty confident I should definitely

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Speaker 3: be on that plane to Glasgow.

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Speaker 2: Wonderful. And you mentioned the move from long jump to

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Speaker 2: heptathlon after your knee surgery, So what did it?

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Speaker 1: Just?

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Speaker 2: Is there less pressure on your knee doing seven events

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Speaker 2: rather than just the long jump, which puts more pressure

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Speaker 2: on your knee. That is that the thing beyond it?

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Speaker 1: Uh?

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Speaker 3: Not really, I guess when So, I was quite a

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Speaker 3: multi talented high schooler, I guess, and various sports and

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Speaker 3: my intention once I left school was always to go

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Speaker 3: on to the hip Tathon, but just maybe didn't quite

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Speaker 3: have the right environment to facilitate that, so focused on

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Speaker 3: the long jump in sprints, and then with my second

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Speaker 3: knee surgery and changing coaches, he just suggested that given

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Speaker 3: I had a jump's background with high jumpers, well that

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Speaker 3: maybe we while we're building back to full kind of capacity,

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Speaker 3: that we spread the load across the whole body and

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Speaker 3: trained for hiptathon.

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Speaker 4: You do see more and more.

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Speaker 3: Athletes these days using that as a tool to come

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Speaker 3: back from injury because it means that you know, you're

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Speaker 3: using your upper body, your lower body and taking the

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Speaker 3: stress out of just one part of your body. And

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Speaker 3: I did one season and said to him that I

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Speaker 3: don't want to look back, don't want to just go

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Speaker 3: back to being a long jumper, And yeah, I guess

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Speaker 3: that's that's kind of where we are now.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely brilliant. So you're obviously pots classic today. What does

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Speaker 2: the next little while look like for you, Brianna? As

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Speaker 2: you as you've attacked what will be a really really

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Speaker 2: big twenty twenty six for you?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So this is the beginning of the summer circuit.

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Speaker 3: Typically I do long jump as well, but wasn't sure

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Speaker 3: how my body was going to pull up after the

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Speaker 3: httath on, so sixty meter hurdles and then I'll also

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Speaker 3: be pacing the a woman's eight hundred meters as well,

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Speaker 3: which is always fun and hook Spay is my home,

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Speaker 3: so this is one of my favorite competitions of the year.

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Speaker 3: Then I'm pretty much most weekends for the next six

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Speaker 3: to seven weeks competing throughout New Zealand. So yeah, there's

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Speaker 3: Sir Gram Douglas in Auckland, Capitol Classic in Wellington, Porroit

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Speaker 3: Classic in Hamilton, and International Track Meet in.

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Speaker 4: Christ Church where I'll.

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Speaker 3: Kind of play around with a few of the different

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Speaker 3: events at those meets to kind of refine each individual

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Speaker 3: event until I put together another hptath on at our

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Speaker 3: New Zealand Championships at the.

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Speaker 2: End of March schedule and six thousand and ninety eight

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Speaker 2: that would have got your fourth at the last Commonwealth Games.

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Speaker 2: You know now that you're effectively qualified for it. Are

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Speaker 2: you targeting? Are you targeting the podium? You must be

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Speaker 2: surely if you're there you might as well.

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Speaker 3: Yeap, Yes, absolutely absolutely targeting the podium and I guess

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Speaker 3: you know, as a as a benchmark for the season.

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Speaker 3: Very very happy to be sitting at six h nine

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Speaker 3: to eight, but yeap, my team and I have big

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Speaker 3: aspirations for this year and know that I'm very capable

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Speaker 3: of surpassing that. Also looking at the New Zealand record

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Speaker 3: and a few other little things along the way as well.

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Speaker 4: So yeah, super exciting.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely is Gee, it's great to get the chance

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Speaker 2: to chat to You're right at the beginning of it. Brown,

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Speaker 2: all the best today in the sixty meter hurdles and

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Speaker 2: the pacing for the eight hundred to start with exciting

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Speaker 2: time ahead for you. Will look forward to tracking your progress.

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Speaker 2: Thanks so much for chatting to us.

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Speaker 4: Thanks Jason, I appreciate it.

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Speaker 2: No, I appreciate you joining us. Thanks indeed, Brianna Stevenson

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Speaker 2: there leading heptathletes and one of the competitors at the

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Speaker 2: Potts Classic in Hastings starting in around eight minutes at

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Speaker 2: three o'clock.

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