Athletics: Pupils defy elements to smash records

LEADING BUNCH: Bradley Christison (NBHS) leads Will Little (right, Lindisfarne) from Kane Elms (St John's) and Lachie Cairns (left, Lindisfane) in the senior boys' race. PHOTO/Mark Roberts

DESPITE the heat and gusty winds three course records were broken at the East Coast Schools Road Race at the Hawke's Bay Regional Sports Park in Hastings last week.

Bradley Christison (Napier Boys' High) had company for the first lap in the senior boys' 6km race but soon worked his way clear of his rivals. He kept up a strong run to the line, obviously intent on a good time.

Maybe he even had his eyes on the record as his own Year 9 course record had been broken in the previous race.

Christison won in 19m30s by more than 200m from St John's Kane Elms and Lindisfarne's Will Little. Christison's time lowered the record by eight seconds.

The Year 9boys and girls raced together over the 3km distance. This proved to be a high quality event as both winners shattered previous records and Year 9 girls' winner Briana Irving impressed with her time and placing.

Irving (Gisborne Girls' High School) is a class act. Her CV this year includes setting a championship record for 3000m (10:18.43) at the East Coast Champs in March, being runner-up at the North Island School Champs in Auckland in April (in 10:18.06) to Waikato's Charli Miller, and running second again to Miller in the national W14 road race in Masterton last month.

In Thursday's race Irving would have shocked some of the boys by holding a very forward position in the combined boys' and girls' race, being 20m ahead of eventual third placegetter Will Tidswell (Havelock North High) at the halfway mark.

The boys she was running amongst were fine athletes themselves. Winner Oliver Marshall (Napier Boys' High), runner-up Max Taylor (Napier Boys' High) and Tidswell had placed first, sixth and third respectively at North Island Champs in the 3000m, and Marshall was national M14 runner up on the road in Masterton.

Irving's time on Thursday of 10:31 easily replaced schoolmate Olivia Corrin's time of 10:43. Corrin in turn had set a North Island Championship record for 3000m when in Year 9.

Marshall ran 9:43 to take seven seconds off Christison's Year 9 record.

While the three record setters predictably won by wide margins, the closest finish on the day came in the junior boys' 4km race in which St John's runner Mark Day won with a dip on the line from Gisborne Boys' Caleb Trabitzsch. Both were given the same time of 13:22.

■ Year 9 girls' 3km: B Irving (GGHS) 10:31, 1 (record); B Lee (NGHS) 11:29, 2; A Wentz (Woodford) 11:40, 3.

■ Junior girls' 4km: R Brett (Karamu) 16:04, 1; N Boesch (NGHS) 16:13, 2; I Angland (NGHS) 16:29, 3.

■ Senior girls' 4km: E Dunn (NGHS) 15:13, 1; C Layton 15:16, 2; M Pedersen (NGHS) 15:49, 3.

■ Year 9 boys' 3km: O Marshall (NBHS) 9:43 (record), 1; M Taylor (NBHS) 10:17, 2; W Tidswell (HNHS) 10:22, 3.

■ Junior boys' 4km: M Day (St John's) 13:22, 1; C Trabitzsch (GBHS) 13:22, 2; M Ireland (St John's) 13:51, 3.

■ Senior boys' 6km: B Christison (NBHS) 19:30 (record), 1; K Elms (St John's) 20:16, 2; W Little (Lindisfarne) 20:24, 3.