Alana’s focus pays big dividends

Swapping a leotard for a pair of track shoes has paid dividends for Bunbury athlete Alana Gianotti who won gold at the State Multi Event Championships earlier this month.

Alana backed that performance up with a silver medal in the 90m hurdles at the Athletics WA State Championships at the weekend and will now represent her State at the nationals in Sydney next month before jetting to Singapore for an international meet in July.

The 13-year-old gave up gymnastics last year after discovering a passion for athletics and the move is beginning to pay off, Alana securing what she hopes is the first of many track wins.

“I’d been doing gym since I was four-years-old and I took up athletics about three years ago, ” she said.

“Juggling both sports was getting really hard and my body wasn’t coping so now I’m just focused on athletics.”

Alana has flourished under the tutelage of South West Little Athletics coach Donelle McInerney and surprised both her coach and herself with her performance at the State event.

“The State Multi is made up of five events — discuss, long jump, 100m, 800m and 80m hurdles, ” McInerney said.

“Alana was up against the State champion from the last two years and competing against some fairly high credentialed kids but did some massive personal bests and really peaked at the right time.”

“Her intensive background in gymnastics has made her incredibly flexible, strong through her core and coordinated which all translate well to track events.”

Alana hopes to model her career on that of Olympian and world champion hurdler Jana Pittman, although McInerney said it would be some time before she was able to compete in Pittman’s staple — the 400m hurdles.

“The 400m hurdle is an incredibly demanding event and Alana is too young to be put through that intensity of training at this stage.

“We’re concentrating on keeping her technique up and working on building her endurance but I’m confident she has the ability to excel when her time comes.”