Annual warrant of athletic fitness sees Academy of Sport history being made

The Academy of Sport fitness testing takes place every year, and provides an opportunity for student athletes to test out their skills, assess and compare their strengths, and engage with other high performance athletes.

The Manawatū campus is home to student athletes across 17 different sports, with everything from ice hockey players to equestrian riders, rugby players, and Irish dancers, which sees a wide variety of sporting and physical attributes on display. Due to this cross-section of talents, rather than use specific performance targets, a broad range of tests are used to assess each athlete’s general speed, strength, and power.

The athletes are tested across the following areas:

• Speed: completing five, 10, and 20 metre sprints through speed timing gates.
• Power: vertically using a jump tree, horizontally via a broad jump, and completing a reverse overhead throw using a medicine ball.
• Strength: 60 second press up test.
• Core: assessed through a timed front and side plank.

The day proved an eventful and successful session, showing off the talents of the Academy of Sport stars with some history-making results.

Highlights included an impressive display from Angus Lyver, who broke the Palmerston North Boys’ High School record in the 200 metre sprint last year with a result of 21.49 seconds, making him a tough competitor for the 20 metre sprint timing gates. Angus finished with a time of 2.84 seconds, and now holds the fastest time in Massey Academy of Sport history.

Angus also showed off the talent that earned him a silver in the Oceania Under-20 Athletics Championships earlier this year by producing the longest broad jump seen in the Academy of Sport, of 2.77 metres.

Dual cricket and athletics athlete Sam Mackinder went head-to-head against roller skating athlete Phoenix Reid in the women’s sprint, showing a match of power in the five metre sprint, with Sam managing to pull ahead in the 10 and 20 metre gates. Meg Rogers was the champion of the day in the prone hold competition, completing a three-minute plank and exhibiting the necessary core strength needed in equestrian riders.

High Performance Strength Coach James Amon says it was a great event and anticipates these athletes will continue to reach new heights during their time with Massey.

“It’s always interesting to see the athletes interact with each other and understand what attributes their peers require to excel in their given sports. We had some great results and kept it fun, though being athletes, there’s always a bit of healthy competition! I look forward to watching these athletes continue to thrive and seeing where they go from here.”

Massey’s Academy of Sport is a sport scholarship programme for emerging and high performance athletes. Behind the programme is team of experts, including high performance coordinators, who work with the student athletes to ensure they have flexibility with their studies to fit around their training and event commitments, to provide individualised support to excel in their sporting career and in their study journey, and to provide services such as nutrition advice, physical conditioning, and sports psychology.