By KAREN COOMBS
BEING athletic can get you a lot of success in sport. Just ask Westall Secondary College student Lieng Tang.
Tang, who won a gold medal in the 11 years long jump at the School Sports Australia national athletics championships while at Westall Primary School, was last week awarded a School Sports Victoria Sporting Blue award for excellence in athletics at primary school level.
Tang also claimed silver in the 100-metre relay and bronze in the 200-metre sprint along with a host of medals for softball, cross-country, aussie rules and rugby league.
After coming to Australia from Cambodia as a child, Tang had never belonged to a sports club or had coaching opportunities before he came to Westall, where his teachers, especially physical education teacher Donna Westie, introduced him to the sports he now adores.
When preparing for the state athletics championships last year, Tang didn’t even have a pair of running spikes until a few weeks before the event.
“He ran in runners at regional track and field trials,” Westie explains.
“One of the divisional co-ordinators asked him what size he was and they lent him new spikes.
“Three weeks before the championships he was running in borrowed spikes.”
Tang now owns his own running spikes. “They make me faster by a few metres. I am very happy,” he said.
Tang’s favourite athletics events are the 200 metres and long jump but when it comes to choosing which other sport he likes best he can’t decide. “I can’t pick,” Tang said. “Probably rugby league. I love sprinting, it’s fast.”
For her work at Westall, Westie received a state honour — the School Sports Victoria outstanding teacher award last week.
She was acknowledged for her coaching achievements and contribution to inter-school sport events over many years.
Westie’s appreciation for all sports was sparked at Westall Primary School’s footy day some years ago.
She expected to see students turn up in their favourite AFL footy jumpers. To her surprise, most of the kids wore purple and gold jumpers for Melbourne’s new rugby league team, Melbourne Storm.
Westie, who didn’t know anything about rugby league at the time, decided to teach herself the rules of the game and how to play it.
Her Westall boys’ rugby team won the state championships in 2010 and 2011 and her girls’ side won the state title last year.
Westie loves to get out and about and meet up with other sport teachers at the inter-school sports days.
She is passionate about helping all students reach their full potential, no matter what level they are at. “I tap into what I’ve got, what you’re starting with, I build from there.
“I’m passionate about seeing the kids achieve something so they will feel good about themselves. There’s something in it for everyone. Everyone’s got a job to do out there.”
Westie said the stories behind people’s achievements in sport inspired her.
“I just love hearing sports stories. There’s a human story behind everyone.”
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