Gisborne teens to compete on national stage

TO THE FORE: The New Zealand Track and Field Championships in Christchurch over the weekend were the scene of outstanding performances by Maddie Wilson (left) in the high jump, long jump and 100-metre hurdles and Briana Irving in the 100m and 200m. Picture by Liam Clayton

Three Gisborne teenagers are keen to put their best feet forward on a new athletics track at the national champs in Christchurch.

Briana Irving, Maddie Wilson and Le’Sharn Anderson will represent Hawke’s Bay/Gisborne at the New Zealand Track and Field Championships starting tomorrow and running until Sunday.

Irving, 16, who will compete in the under-18 women’s 100-metre and 200m sprints, said she expected the Nga Puna Wai sports hub surface to be “springy” and fast.

A surf lifesaving Junior Black Fin who specialises in beach sprinting, Irving hopes to get quick times on the new blue track.

“I’m really excited and looking forward to it,” she said.

Wilson, 16, has competed on the track already, winning the national u18 heptathlon title there last month.

She will compete in the high jump, long jump, javelin and 100m hurdles.

Anderson, 15, a promising cross-country and middle-distance runner, is into the action straight away, with the women’s u18 3000m final starting at 9am tomorrow.

All three athletes are Gisborne Girls’ High School students — Wilson in Year 13, Irving, Year 12, and Anderson, Year 11.

Olympic medallists Tom Walsh (shot put) and Eliza McCartney (pole vault) are among the athletes set to compete in senior competition, although McCartney is under an injury cloud after she pulled out of an event this week with a hamstring niggle.

The athletics track, which opened in October last year, was the opening piece of the $53.65 million first stage of Nga Puna Wai. The extensive complex will replace several facilities damaged in the Christchurch earthquakes.

Irving has a busy itinerary in the next few weeks. She is preparing for the surf lifesaving nationals at Mount Maunganui from March 21 to 24. A week later she will be on the Gold Coast for the Australian surf lifesaving nationals.

Wilson, too, will compete at the New Zealand surf lifesaving nationals at the Mount.

Next month, she will fly to Sydney for the Australian u20 national athletics champs, where she will contest the heptathlon.