Secondary school goldmine: Nine national titles for Hawke’s Bay athletes

Havelock North High School runner Karsen Vesty and the three gold medals he won at the National Secondary Schools Track and Field Championships in Inglewood over the weekend.

Hawke’s Bay athletes won nine titles at the 2022 National Secondary Schools Track and Field Championships in Inglewood over the weekend.

Leading the charge was 2022 World Junior Championships runner Karsen Vesty, who completed his secondary schooling by claiming three gold medals, including the Senior Boys’ 3000-metre run and the 1500m, in which he was targeting one of the championships’ longest-lasting records, set by coach Richard Potts in 1989.

With bad weather having dominated the championships on Friday and Saturday, the 18-year-old Vesty controlled the glamour 1500m on Sunday from the start, and was on target with 1000 metres to go before the wind took over and thwarted the attempt.

Vesty, who ran a personal best of three minutes and 48.26 seconds earlier this year before representing New Zealand at the World Junior Championships in Colombia, won on Sunday in 3:51:33, leaving Potts’ schools record of 3:46:92 comfortably intact for another year.

In possibly his last winning act while garbed in the colours of Havelock North High School, he then ran the last of leg of a record-breaking school victory in the 4x400m mixed relay, with Junior Girls’ 100m and 200m runner-up Amponsaa Tabi-Amponsah, road runner Tayne Patel and Senior Girls’ 800m runner-up Sofia Lumbreras.

After the 1500m, Vesty told Athletics NZ media: “It was tough. I wasn’t expecting the last couple of days to make my legs feel so heavy.”

“I went out hard, but realised after 400m the record wasn’t going to happen,” he said. “So when someone came onto my shoulder with 300 to go, I thought I’d better get going. I was a little bit worried down the home straight, but I still had enough.”

Napier Boys’ High School sprinter Rylan Noome claimed two gold medals, by first winning the Senior Boys’ 200m final in 22.27 seconds, and then with Ryan Shotter, Logan Woods and Liam Kilby, winning the glamour relay event. Luis Douglas, of Havelock North High School, also claimed two titles, in para-athlete running events - the 1500m and the 2000m road race. And there was a double for the region in girls’ pole vaults, with Vaya Chaplow, of Havelock North High School, first-equal in the Senior event and Angalla Carney, of Iona College, first-equal in the Junior event.

Many of the athletes are likely to compete in the Sylvia Potts Classic, which will be held in Hastings on January 21.