Athletics: Bay teens to impress at champs in Auckland

Some of the field make a splash at the water jump in the steeplechase. Photos / Mark Roberts, Hastings Athletic Club

Karamu High School's Nick Palmer was the standout performer at Wednesday's East Coast North Island secondary schools' athletics championship.

Palmer won all three throwing events in his intermediate age group, easily surpassing the selection standard for next month's North Island championship in all three. His discus throw was 40.81m, shot put 15.40m and hammer 51.66m. They earned him the male athlete of the meeting award.

Palmer's best shotput of 15.40m demolished the champs record of 14.87m, that Dannevirke's Jesse Quaife previously held, and made the North Island standard of 12.50m look laughable.

His hammer throw added almost 10m to his own champs record set last year - a remarkable throw for an intermediate and further than the long-standing senior record Tane Edwards, of Hastings Boys' High set in 2001.

Female athlete of the meeting award went to Woodford House's Eva Goodisson who won the senior 1500m and the open girls' 2000m steeplechase.

The New Zealand secondary schools' steeplechase champion, Goodisson clocked 7:30.76 to win by a wide margin to eclipse her own East Coast champs record by about 17 seconds.

She came within 0.4 of a second (4:50.71) of breaking the the 1500m record of former Napier Girls' High runner, Holly Mannin, who is studying in the United States on a scholarship.

The outstanding newcomer award went to Briana Irving (Gisborne Girls' High ) who won the junior 1500m and 3000m.

Irving finished second in the mixed junior boys' and girls' 3000m race behind Will Tidswell, of Havelock North High.

Her time of 10:18.43 eclipsed schoolmate Olivia Corrin's record of 10:35:13 set in 2014. Putting that in perspective, Corrin a fortnight later smashed a North Island champs record.

HNHS pupil Georgia Rathbone added 50cm to schoolmate Deborah Edwards' pole vault record, scaling the bar at 3m to win. Rathbone also won the intermediate high jump, clearing the bar at 1.54m.

Georgia Rathbone, of Havelock North High, makes another successful clearance in the pole vault. Photos / Mark Roberts, Hastings Athletic Club

The other records on the day came in the girls' javelin events, which are in their third year with the new 500g weight for all age groups.

Junior grade winner Johanna Neiwenhuis (CHB College) threw 26.94m (the old 600g record belonged to Dannevirke's Jennifer Greatbatch at 25.16m).

Intermediate grade winner Teegan Geary (Woodford House) established a new mark of 35.82m, less than 3m behind the 600g record from 1981.

Twenty-five colleges competed on Wednesday with 20 claiming titles.

A team will now be selected to represent the region at the North Island secondary schools' champs at Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland, from April 1-3.