Big turnout for fourth club night of season

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

They had Awapuni Stadium rocking.

Following on from the primary school athletics sports meet attended by hundreds, the largest field of the season to date — 70-plus — turned out for the fourth Gisborne Athletics Club night.

Cameron Alexander won the high jump at 1.21 metres and the 800m race (in 2 minutes 55 seconds) in his first time out at the track this season.

Mac Morley was right behind Alexander, placing second in the high jump. He made 1.17m, and narrowly missed 1.21m.

Seven-year-old Claudia Wilson won the seven-to-nine-year girls' long jump, leaping 3.07m.

Archie Cook of Awapuni School proved his resilience and staying power when, after a big day of competition in the jumps, he turned his hand to the shot put. Cook's best throw on the night was 6.89m. George Bennett kept him honest almost to the centimetre.

Not only do Gisborne athletes back up, they step up: 18-year-old Briana Irving came second in the 200m with a time of 25.68s in Hawke's Bay the weekend before last. The Waikanae Surf Life Saving Club's Irving, a world champion with the Junior Black Fins and world youth champion beach sprinter, won a national title over 200m in Christchurch with a time of 24.92s and is a major medal prospect for the 48th National Secondary Schools Track, Field and Road Race meeting in Tauranga from December 11 to 13.

Seven Mapu, 17, attended the meeting in Hawke's Bay a week ago and was up against senior men from all over the central and lower North Island. In the 100 metres he came sixth in a personal-best time of 11.33 seconds — a great showing and a strong start to his season.

Jack Sadler, now a member of Auckland's North Shore Bays Club, which consistently wins more medals at national championship events than any other club, had his first outing of the season nine days ago and set an Auckland under-16 record for 60m with a time of 7.41seconds.