Teenage sprinter Chris Luki clearly has high standards.
Most kids would be happy just to qualify for a national championship in their chosen sport, let alone finish on the podium.
But for 13-year-old Luki, winning three medals at last month’s Australia Little Athletics Championships in Adelaide wasn’t up to scratch.
“His goal was to come back with five medals but he came back with three, silver in the 200m, silver in the Swedish medley relay and bronze in the 4x100m relay,” said his mother Ina Leatau.
Luki, who lives in Altona Meadows, attends Bayside P-12 College in Williamstown, which just happened to be competing in an inter-school athletics qualifier on the same day he returned from Adelaide.
According to his mum, it offered a quick shot at redemption.
“He was very upset and once we returned to Melbourne, we went straight to his school to compete in the school athletics comp,” said Ms Leatau, adding that he helped Bayside qualify for the next round of the competition in September.
In between now and then, Luki has a whole host of other sporting competitions to keep him occupied, playing men’s netball, rugby league and he’s also been selected in Bayside’s inter-schools tennis team.
It’s athletics where he’s made the biggest impact though, breaking 100m and 200m records at the Williamstown Little Athletics Club, who he’ll be competing for in a winter competition this weekend.
“He’s really busy,” said Ms Leatau.
“He does a lot of sport. He just loves it.”
