Emali Torres and Team USA friends Reece and Amara, pictured from right, take in the beach at the International Games hosted by Down Under Sports in Queensland, Australia.
Torres earns shot-put honors at International Games in Australia
Across the world, in an unfamiliar place, Emali Torres recently competed in the International Games track and field competition. At the heart of her experience, however, was an event quite familiar to the high school athlete: shot put.
Soon to be starting her junior year at Holyoke High School, Torres has competed in state track twice. This year, she took home gold, throwing 37 feet 6 inches for a new personal record. Now she can add placing internationally to that list of accomplishments. She spent July 8-15 in Gold Coast, Australia, for the 2019 International Games, where she earned third-place and fourth-place finishes.
Torres was one of 245 United States athletes that competed in the track and field contest hosted by Down Under Sports. Other competitors were from Australia and New Zealand. For their first three days in Australia, the athletes practiced and explored the area. It began with some team building right on the beach.
During the afternoons on those first few days, Torres visited kangaroo fields and a wildlife park where she held a koala and saw all kinds of animals native to Australia. At the wildlife park she also enjoyed treetop climbing, in which she wore a harness and did an obstacle course among the trees over the park.
On her fourth day in Australia, Torres took a full-day tour of the rainforest before competition began.
The track and field meet ran Friday-Sunday at Griffith University. On Saturday, Torres threw shot put in the 16-17 age division. Her best throw was 40.35 feet. Differing from her previous track and field experiences, Torres found the International Games to have stricter rules. As a result, she scratched what would have been her best throw, 45 feet. Nevertheless, she finished fourth.
On Sunday, Torres was able to compete in the 20 and over open division. There she took third with a 35.66-foot throw. When she wasn’t throwing herself, Torres had the chance to watch other events. She found javelin particularly interesting since she’d never seen it done before.
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