When Bella Sansom stepped into the discus cage at her first regional championships, the eight-year-old broke a record that had stood for 36 years.
It’s an incredible feat that has the athletics world watching the Moreton Bay youngster’s next moves closely.
Coach Garth Cooper says Bella’s abilities are extremely rare for someone so young.
“She’s thrown [a discus] over 30 metres at least four times,” he said.
When Bella arrived at her first athletics club meet last spring, no-one knew what to expect.
The soft-spoken schoolgirl was not the type to step out of her comfort zone and on that night was taking a huge leap.
“I actually didn’t think she’d get out of the car,” mum Sharon remembers.
“She’s never been the child who wanted to try different sports or dancing or gymnastics like a lot of girls her age do.”
By the end of that first night, Bella was hooked.
“She ran back to us and said, ‘I had so much fun and I made some friends’,” Sharon said.
“That was quite big for Bella because she’s very shy and she lacked confidence in herself.”
Since then, there’s been no stopping Bella’s rise to the top in some of the most technically difficult track and field events.
Her coach says there’s no reason she couldn’t go on to represent Australia one day – if that’s what she wants.
Regardless of what happens next, the choice to challenge herself by “giving it a go” has seen Bella’s confidence grow in leaps and bounds.
Her best advice for other shy kids?
“To take a deep breath, to believe in themselves, and just have fun.”
Finding her feet
A school athletics carnival last winter was the key to unlocking Bella’s extraordinary talents for discus, shot-put and race walking.
Bringing home seven blue ribbons and an age-group champion medal, she surprised everyone — including herself.
“I don’t think she believed she could be good at anything,” Sharon said.
“It was only when she tried athletics that she saw — and we saw — she had a natural ability in it.”
Buoyed by the achievement, Bella asked her parents about joining her local athletics club at Deception Bay.
There she met Garth, who instantly spotted star potential.
“Coming across Bella is something that a coach looks for all the time: a young athlete who can control their body,” he said.
“We have training sessions and lots of kids come along, and I was trying to test out their ability to learn some different things, and one was a bit of a complex action with their feet.
“I had about 30 kids there and I saw that Bella picked it up straight away.”
With Garth’s help, Bella quickly got the hang of rotational throwing techniques normally reserved for older athletes.
Using these advanced techniques at her first regional competition, she broke several longstanding club records.
In just a few months, she became someone other athletes turned to for tips.
“An eight-year-old that does what she does — it’s just unheard of,” Garth said.
A star on the rise
As her first athletics season comes to a close, Bella is busy preparing for state championships in Brisbane where she’ll compete in Under 9 girls shot-put, discus and 700-metre race walk.
She trains four times a week with Garth’s squad — always begging for “one more throw” when time’s up — and exercises at home in between.
In her downtime, Bella studies YouTube clips of Olympic gold medal-winning American discus thrower Valarie Allman who she likes because “she has a big smile when she’s throwing”.
Bella “really, really” wants to go to the Olympics one day, but for now focuses on improving her personal best and trying to learn from mistakes.
“I love throwing things really, really far, and I just love doing that all the time,” she said.
“I sometimes I get the nerves [in front of a crowd], but then I get more into it and I feel more excited.
“I feel really, really proud of myself when I improve. If I don’t, I just believe in myself and I correct myself and I know I can do it.”
Garth says he sees similarities between Bella and his son Mitchell Cooper, who threw discus for Australia at the 2017 world championships.
But he says it’s up to Bella how far she wants to take her talents, and no-one should pressure her to pursue a particular path.
“I see too many coaches of young kids say, ‘You’ve got to devote 100 per cent of your time to [one sport]’,” he said.
“She’s addicted at the moment to doing [training] drills in the kitchen when she should be in bed, but we’ve also talked about: ‘What would you like to be doing if you weren’t doing this?’
“I’m not pushing her in any way other than to make sure she explores all the options.”
Sharon says the family will support Bella’s ambitions as long as she’s still enjoying herself, adding that nothing beats seeing her daughter thrive in a supportive environment.
“She’s just going out there and having fun, and that’s the main thing for us.”
Get our local newsletter, delivered free each Wednesday
Discussion about this post