If the ferocity striped across their faces while running two loops of the all-weather Domain track on New Year's day is a guide, then Matua Primary schoolmates Josh Tisch and Nick Freeman could be in for a bumper next few days at the North Island Colgate Games.
Nearly 1635 athletes aged from 7 to 14 from 102 clubs will descend on Tauranga Domain from tomorrow for three days of competition, including a team of almost 100 athletes from Australia preparing for a transtasman competition in Auckland next week.
Tisch (Tauranga Ramblers) and Freeman (Bellevue) will compete on the track wearing different colours but are mates and rivals at Tauranga's Matua school.
Tisch will compete in the B10 grade at his first Colgate Games, running the 400m, 800m and 1500m, with the two-lapper his best. Freeman will run in the next grade up, with his four-event schedule including the 100m, 800m, 1500m and long jump.
Tisch and Freeman shadowed each other around the track in the 800m during Sunday's twilight meet before Tisch bolted clear over the final 50m, pipping Freeman by 1.8sec.
They've been counting down the days until their first Colgate Games, with Freeman also recovering from a broken collarbone suffered in November which has curtailed his training. "I've been back in running but haven't been able to do much serious training so I've been squeezing it in in the last week," said Freeman, who has been competing at Bellevue since he was 6.
Tisch switched clubs from Bellevue to Tauranga Ramblers last month and had spent nearly every day since school finished honing his speed. "I'm a bit nervous but also really looking forward to it," he said.
It is the first time the North Island Games have been in Tauranga since the event began in 1979. The North Island Colgate Games, and its South Island equivalent, are the biggest on the calendar for children's athletics. Despite the Games clashing with the Port of Half, which is the biggest sports event on Western Bay's calendar, organising committee chairman Rolf Porter said everyone had found accommodation.
Porter, from the Greerton club, said the Games would be the first large-scale meet for many of the younger athletes.
"They don't have to qualify but a lot of the kids will have done ribbon days in their own areas so they will have had a taste. By the end of these three days they'll have a good idea whether they want to progress on in the sport."