Nielsen continues at the top

Mikayla Nielsen 

The last we heard from Mikayla Nielsen, she was selected to take on the world at the World Cross Country championships in Slovakia.

Then again, last year Mikayla was selected as the only New Zealand junior woman to compete at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Cross Country Championships in Spain after producing a very good finish in the under-19 grade of the national championships in Waikanae.

Unfortunately, cost has prevented Mikayla from taking up these opportunities.

‘It’s such a huge amount of money to raise in such a short period of time,’ says a disappointed Mikayla.

Mikayla continues to produce stunning performances in four disciplines; triathlon, on and off-road cross country plus track and field.

Competing at the under-19 level (despite her being just 16), Mikayla is in Triathlon New Zealand’s Youth Academy and is the National W16 road champion after winning in Auckland last year.  She also recently won the W19 3000m at the Cooks Classic in Palmerston North, the under-19 Triathlon Oceania championships in Wellington, and the under-19 national schools triathlon championships in Queenstown.  Among many other events, she also competed in the Contact Tri Series in Rotorua, Kinloch, Whangamata, and Takapuna winning the sprint distance W19 in each.

Mikayla has recently been invited to join the triathlon NZ elite team and will in June, attend a camp in Boulder, America where she will get altitude training and have the opportunity to compete outside of New Zealand in the Pan American Junior Championship in Edmonton. Early September, she has been selected to compete in the ITU Sprint Distance Junior Triathlon Championships in Beijing and says she ‘will go all-out to get there.’

She is now seeking sponsorship to support her in travelling overseas in search of a broader arena of competition.

‘I want to have the opportunity to race alongside the best and see how far I can go – I’m aiming for the top,’ she says.