Wintec is on a mission to find the highest performing athletes
Jako Bekker (left) tests an athlete at Wintec’s Centre for Sport Science and Human Performance.
Wintec’s Centre for Sport Science and Human Performance is on a mission to find the most agile, powerful and the fastest Waikato athletes to win bragging rights for their sport and school.
Sixteen Waikato secondary schools have been invited to pilot Wintec’s Champion of the Codes. The challenge will see Sport Science and Human Performance staff and post-graduate students visit each school to use their performance testing skills and equipment to test some of the region’s best athletes and name the overall winners.
Wintec Sport Science and Human Performance centre director Greg Smith is looking forward to some healthy competition.
“We’re all for win-win and we’re strong advocates of sharing our experience with the community. Champion of the Codes will enable us to meet and work with up and coming sports stars, who in turn, can really benefit from the interaction and the contacts they make.”
The ultimate Champion of the Codes male and female winners will be rewarded with the opportunity to have a one-on-one strength and conditioning assessment and a personalised strength and conditioning training programme at the Waikato Human Performance Hub. There will also be a winner from each school. All winners will be invited to a personalised tour through Wintec’s sport science campus and get the opportunity to try the state of the art equipment.
The competition will launch on 25 July and run through until the end of September when the winners will be announced. Results will be added to an online leader board for students and schools to track on www.wintec.ac.nz.
Wintec sport science academic Jako Bekker is coordinating Champion of the Codes and sees it as having potential as a long-term annual event.
“We’ve chosen to pilot the scheme with a smaller number of secondary schools, to evaluate it and ensure it works for all involved."
The overall leader board is ranked by the total score that each participant has achieved across four tests. A participant’s ranking in each test determines the amount of points they are awarded. These rankings will determine the winners of the overall prize.
Contestants will be scored on a 10 metre sprint, a vertical and a horizontal jump, and the 5-0-5 test, an assessment of someone's change of direction speed. Jako says these tests will assess athletic abilities like acceleration, change of direction speed, power and technique.
View the leader board for Wintec’s Champion of the Codes.
Find out more about Wintec’s Centre for Sport Science and Human Performance and the Waikato Human Performance Hub.
