Olds throwing athlete Haylin Eling is taking a couple of weeks off now to rest and nurse an injured knee, but after that, she wants to get back into training for the indoor season.
Eling is pumped after her performance during the Legion National Youth Track and Field Championships, held Aug. 9-11 in Cape Breton, N.S.
Overall, she did well, despite suffering a knee injury about a week before the event.
"A week before legions her right knee swelled up and she was told she had a possible MCL (medial collateral ligament) tear. Her training had to be revised to let her rest and still be able to throw well at nationals," Eling's coach, Rachel Andres, wrote in an email to the Albertan.
When she got to the nationals, Eling got the verdict from doctors on-site.
"I have a tear in my meniscus and I've sprained my MCL," she told the Albertan. "So when I come back to Olds soon I'm going to have to go for an MRI and see because I have fluid underneath my kneecap."
But Eling didn't let that stop her.
"I've been training so hard this whole year just for this one weekend and I wasn't just going to, like, not go because of my knee. So I pushed through as hard as I could and I performed to the best of my abilities," she said.
However, Eling admitted she was nervous about possibly making the injury worse.
Andres said initially, Eling didn’t think she’d be able to go to the legion nationals after failing to make the Team Alberta standards earlier in the year. However, she made the open standards in both hammer and discus and then was accepted in shot put competition as well.
She got off to a good start on Friday by making her second best discus throw ever: 34.01 metres (m). She finished in 11th place.
On Saturday, Aug. 10, she threw a new shot put personal best (PB) of 12.18 m, finishing in 13th place.
'This was the event I was worried about bothering her knee, so I was so happy to see her come out with a PB," Andres wrote.
Sunday, Aug. 11 was a rough day for Eling.
She fouled all three of her hammer throws, thereby failing to make it into the finals.
"Her right knee was obviously causing her to be more cautious with her turns. And, in a super sticky ring, caution meant going too slow to get the hammer to land within the sector lines," Andres wrote.
Eling confirmed that things just didn't feel right.
"(It) feels like you're turning in gravel, which is not ideal," she said.
Eling was disappointed to end her outdoor season by fouling out, but she and Andres are looking on the bright side.
"I still PB'd in shotput, which was pretty cool. And I got a second best throw of the season in discus this year, which was really awesome," she said.
"(Eling) has had an incredible year and has only been doing this sport for about 15 months," Andres wrote. "Next year will show even more improvements as she better learns the form that each event requires. I am very proud of the progress she has made, and will continue helping her grow in the sport."
Eling said she agrees with her coach's assessment.
"I do, considering that this is my first full season and I've made nationals," she said. "And I went from not being top 50 to being top 20 in Canada, which is really cool and a big achievement of mine."
So after she takes a couple of weeks off to rest, relax and let her knee recover, Eling plans to get right back into training and competition.
"My drive is so hard right now. I'm so excited," she said.
Eling admits there were some times earlier when the drive wasn't so strong.
"At some point during the season I did question why I was doing it. Or during indoor, when I was in the gym, just like, 'I could be sitting at home right now,'" she said.
"But when I went to nationals and I saw all these people, it just was a really big eyeopener because it's like, 'oh, this is what I've been training for and I made it.'"
