Athletics: Twins become instant heroes

Te Puke High School's twin brothers Toonika, left, and Sunnity Maeke have had a sporting month to remember. Photo/George Novak

It has not taken twin brothers Sunnity and Toonika Maeke long to make a sizeable impression at Te Puke High School.

The 18-year-olds arrived with their parents from the tiny South Pacific country of Kiribati in February and expected a quiet period settling in to a whole new life, with improving their English a major priority.

But they are now the school's latest sporting heroes after three consecutive stand-out performances at recent athletics events.

At the school's sports day, the brothers easily qualified for the Bay of Plenty Secondary Schools finals in their favoured discus, shot put and javelin disciplines.

Sunnity set a new school record by more than a metre in the senior shot put and Toonika easily won the senior javelin in his first official competition. They then took on the best athletes from the Bay's top schools and destroyed them.

Sunnity won the shot put with a throw of 13.7m, a metre further than his rivals, and then won the discus by a whopping 6m with a 43.71m throw.

Toonika chimed in with a winning javelin throw of 44.92m, 6.5m further than anyone else on the day.

Beginner's luck for such inexperienced athletes? No chance. Last weekend they went up a class at the Waikato/BOP Championships held at Porritt Stadium and came home with two gold medals and a bronze between them. Sunnity won the shot put and was third in the discus, with Toonika throwing 46.01m to win the javelin title.

Shea McEvoy, in charge of the innovative PLUS ULTRA: High Performance Athlete Academy at Te Puke High School, says no one was expecting the brothers to be so good. "They had been here such a short time we didn't really know this was a skill they had until athletics day," McEvoy said. "We heard someone had broken a record in the shot put by quite a lot and that was when we first found out."

Next up for the twins are the NZ Track and Field Championships in Wellington this weekend before they harness their strength into forming a potent front row for the Te Puke High School First XV.