Clear blue skies above Tauranga greeted some fast-paced action on the first of the first day of the NZCT AIMS Games for 2011. Event organisers couldn’t have wished for a more perfect start to the tournament as the sun gleamed down on Waipuna Park in Tauranga for the first event of the week-long sporting spectacular, at the much anticipated Cross Country.
In front of a two thousand plus crowd, local advantage prevailed in the girls races as competitors from Bay of Plenty schools took the gold medal in both year 7 and year 8 girl’s events.
Holding off opponents from much larger schools to become the clear winner of the Girl's Year 7 race and collect the first gold medal of the tournament was Rebekah McCafferty from Kaimai School. Nestled in the Kaimai Ranges overlooking Tauranga in the Western Bay of Plenty the rural roads and farm lands surrounding Kaimai School prove great training ground for Rebekah who adds this AIMS title to a growing list of cross country achievements including a win at this year's Bay of Plenty Cross Country Championships.
Asked if she thought she had the home town advantage Rebekah, the only competitor from Kaimai School laughed "yes probably", although slightly disappointed to finish just five seconds off the race record Rebekah was happy with her race time of 11.29 minutes'. Following tonight's opening ceremony Rebekah will be going home to rest her legs in preparation for her second event of the week the Multisport on Wednesday.
Zia MacDiarmid of Monrad Intermediate in Palmerston North collected the silver medal ahead of Auckland Normal Intermediate representative Nicole Kearny in the bronze position.
John Paul College from Rotorua collected the gold medal in the Year 8 Girls race when last year's silver medallist Paige Satchell went one better to cross the finish line ahead of Aquanis College competitors Hannah Skelton in silver and Dana Welten in bronze. Collecting the gold medal tops off superb year for Paige who won both the Western Bay of Plenty and Bay of Plenty Championships this year. "With natural ability to burn, Paige doesn't leave it all to luck" states her John Paul College coach, "She works really hard, she doesn't like to run behind anyone, even in training, I'm so proud of her today".
Paige calls Rotorua's Smallbone Park her training ground stating "it's got everything, stairs, hills and fast flat bits". "I've been training for this race since coming second last year" the excited youngster proclaimed, the silver medal sat in her bedroom the past year providing motivation for gold. When asked if she will be taking a few much deserved days off following her win Paige chuckled "my coach said I could but I'll be back at training tomorrow, I love it so much".
