Stormers Coach Profile – Mikayla Cruz

Lets continue getting to know the Stormers coaching team!

Mikayla Cruz is our next coach profile.

Mikayla started Little Athletics at the age of 9 at Rouse Hill Little Athletics club in Sydney. She enjoyed the long-distance events as well as long jump and hurdles.

She competed at zone, regional and state carnivals in Sydney and once she moved to Canberra, she decided to take Athletics to the next level and start training.

Mikayla started out training with a distance coach at the AIS, making her first National competition in 2015 for the 3000m and the 200m hurdles.

After this competition, her coach realized she had a lot of potential in the hurdles events and referred her over to a sprint/hurdles coach.

She continued to represent the ACT at Junior Nationals in 2016, 2017 & 2018, All Schools Nationals in 2016 & 2018 and the Australian Little Athletics Championships in 2016.

In 2018, Mikayla’s final year of schooling, she qualified for the Melanesian Regional Championships, to be held in Port Vila, Vanuatu for the 400m hurdles. She ran her race in 38-degree weather and managed to come away with a gold medal in the U18 age group!

This is one of Mikayla’s proudest achievements and she now wants to help inspire the younger generation of athletes to always do their best and most importantly, have fun.

The youngest member of the Stormers coaching team, we are very lucky to have Mikayla sharing her skills and experience each week. The children love her positive energy, her encouraging approach to coaching and often her very cool nails! Thanks Mikayla!!