Nate Clarke wins at Nationals

With a new race plan, some new-found confidence and a handle on his nerves, Nate was really looking forward to competing in his second National level competition at the weekend.

With no expectations other than the hope to perform a PB and hopefully go under two minutes for the 800m, Nate was able to relax and really enjoy the experience and hype of the event.

This helped with his nerves which took over in his previous National final.

Seeded sixth for the event, Nate only wanted to better his previous national result of seventh in Australia.

The plan – to go out hard and run the race of his life! Mum and coach, Carolyn advised, “Go hard and let’s see what your body can do. Have faith in it and yourself. We need to know what you can do”. And that he did. Being a timed final, there was no room to sit and wait to follow the leader.

Nate took the pace out hard and fast, continuing this throughout the first lap, taking a 10m lead from the top seed and National title holder, Caiden McFarland in a 57 second split.

In the final 200m the lactic acid and pain set in making it hard for Nate to make the sprint home. McFarland took the lead with 80m to go, leaving Nate to fight home strongly for second place and a silver medal. Commentators were impressed with Nate’s brave and gutsy effort in controlling the fast pace of the race saying, “Kudos to Nathaniel Clarke for really setting the tone in that race and making it fast”.

Nate and Carolyn were both shocked and ecstatic over Nate’s silver medal, with Nate surpassing all their hopes and expectations in the race.

Nate has set up a great platform in which to tweak his race style and plan and looks forward to his next big race meet – the NSW Country Championships in January.

He has already qualified for the Australian Junior Championships to be held in Brisbane next April.