AIMS Games: Relay supremacy changes hands

The start of the Year 8 girls' cross country race at Waipuna Park. Photo / George Novak

After a solo effort in the cross country, Maia Flint has turned her attention to a team sport.

The Tauranga Rudolf Steiner School student got the NZCT AIMS Games off to a flyer, beating 130 other runners to claim the Year 7 title at Waipuna Park. For the rest of the week she will be in the school's netball team.

A first-year runner, Flint said she didn't know what to expect from the cross country race, but knew she had to go her hardest to stay in front.

"I possibly could have done better but I don't know," Flint said. "I'm happy with what I've achieved."

Although they don't run a cross country at her school, Flint trains with her parents, who both run socially, and said that has been helpful.

Flint's mother, Michelle, said they often run up Mauao and Maia waits for her at the top.

"She genuinely just loves to run," Michelle Flint said. "From an early age, we've had to say, 'No you can't come, you're too young'."

Flint led from beginning to end in the opening race, finishing the tough 3km course in 11m25s. She was the school's only representative in the cross country.

Tauranga Intermediate regained bragging rights over Otumoetai Intermediate in the highly anticipated cross-country relay.

Tauranga dominated with a time of 40m59s in the 12km event to regain the title after two years from their cross-town rivals.

The win gave Tauranga its ninth victory in the event's 12-year history.

Tauranga Intermediate Year 8 runner Thomas Friskney was ecstatic with the win.

"It definitely felt great to beat our rivals," he said. Tauranga also set a new relay record, breaking Otumoetai's record set last year.

The Tauranga team was made up of 11 Year 7 and Year 8 boys and girls, with each member running 1km, except for one who ran twice.

Friskney ran sixth and said their strategy was to "just go hard". Tauranga runners led the pack the entire race. Bucklands Beach Intermediate, from Auckland, finished third.

Auckland's Zane Powell took out the Year 7 boys' race, after a battle with Tauranga Intermediate's Corban Crowther, who eventually finished six seconds behind the winner with George Lambert (Hunterville Consolidated School) third.

Gisborne's Briana Irving smashed the Year 8 girls' cross country record clocking 10m58s with Will Taylor from Cobham Intermediate winning the Year 8 boys' race, out-sprinting Finn Seeds (Hutt International) in the final straight.

-Full results:

www.nzaimsgames.co.nz.