With bronze medals in the 10yr boys' 200m and 400m in Wellington in 2015, and silver medals last year in two relays as well as the 400m at the South Island Colgate Games in Nelson a week later, Charlie faces a busy programme this weekend, in the 100m, 400m, 800m and long jump, and the 4x100m and medley relays he could be competing about 12 times if he gets through to the finals in each event.
It will be even busier for the family, also represented by Hannah, 7, hoping to get her first pennants, the prize for children aged 7-9yrs grades, and 10-year-old Jonty, tackling the medal grades for the first time, before joining a mainly Auckland team for the transtasman children's athletics challenge in Sydney next week, retracing steps taken by Charlie two years ago.
"Sport certainly brings families together," said their father.
The Colgate Games, were first held in 1978 and carry possibly the longest-standing sponsorship arrangement in New Zealand sport, have established a multi-generational following, including some of whom grew to become top international performers, including Olympics and World champion shot putter Valerie Adams and 2008 and 2016 Olympics 1500m medallist Nick Willis.
Competitors in the Colgates' twilight years of ages 13 and 14 also vie for the Nick Willis Scholarships, with four awarded at both the Hastings games and the South Island Colgate Games in Invercargill next week. Hastings athletes have claimed scholarships in three of the four year since they were introduced.
The Games rotate around all-weather track venues in the North Island, attracting about 5000 visitors, with brothers, sisters, mums, dads, cousins, uncles, aunts and grandparents supporting the young athletes.
When last held in Hastings in 2011, the Colgates Games was one of the first events held on the new track, built to replace Nelson Park, where the games were last held in 2004 and which is now the site of a large shopping centre.
