Trio’s pursuits helped along by scholarships

PURSUIT of excellence by three youngsters is being helped along through the Bendigo Sports Star of the Year scholarships.

Mountain bike competitor Alana Fletcher, hockey ace Miller Evans, and wheelchair basketball player Harriet Caldwell are the latest scholarship recipients.

It’s not just cash they receive as D-Club in Bendigo’s Bath Lane provides 12-month membership.

Alana Fletcher represented Australia at the cyclo-cross junior world championships in the Netherlands, and was also at an AusCycling European development XCO camp.

Fletcher was ninth in the Czech Cup C1; 36th in the UCI junior XCO world series at the Heubacher Mountain Bike Festival; 28th in XCC and 51st in XCO in the UCI XCO junior world series at Nove Mesto na Morave in the Czech Republic.

Fletcher was first in the under-19 women’s division of the AusCycling XCO national series and being categorised by AusCycling and the Australian Institute of Sport as an emerging MTB XCO athlete.

Miller Evans represented Victoria at the Hockey Australia under-16 championships in Hobart in April with the Big V’s development team.

He competed at last year’s Gryphon Hockey Junior International Youth Cup in Perth which involved teams from Singapore, Malaysia and Japan.

Evans played a key role as Hockey Central Victoria won bronze at the Victorian junior country championships in May and will represent North West Lightning in the Victorian under-16 boys state titles, and also the under-18 state championships in September.

Evans will head west in November to play in the Gryphon Hockey Junior International in Perth, and is also captain of Sandhurst’s A-grade men’s team and was last year’s club champion.

Harriet Caldwell earnt silver at the Australian Junior National Wheelchair Basketball Championships in Brisbane in April and earnt the Basketball Australia Community Award for sportsmanship and character.

Caldwell has signed for a second season with Victorian Wonders in the Women’s National Wheelchair Basketball League which tipped off in May and will be played until September.

The Wonders split home games between Bendigo and Keilor, and away games will be on the Gold Coast, Perth and Adelaide.

There was no June winner in Sports Star.