South School wins senior Forbes and Tippett Relays

The top three Forbes Cup A-Grade Girls' teams from left: St Josephs (2nd), South (1st), Huia Range (3rd).

Dannevirke Athletics pulled off a small miracle on Monday night by squeezing in the traditional Forbes and Tippett inter-primary school relays between bouts of wet weather. Despite earlier drizzly and cool weather the day fined up, the wind dried the grass and even the sun shone - albeit briefly.

A large crowd of parents and supporters assembled for the event, which has run since 1953. It comprises four relays of teams of four each running 100 metres on the 400m track. The B-Grade was for predominantly Year 7 athletes but schools with fewer than 100 on their roll were able to field Year 8 competitors.

The A-grade was predominantly Year 8 athletes. The girls competed for the Forbes Cup and the boys the Tippett Cup.

It has not been a good season for the athletics club weather-wise with rain on most Wednesday training nights and the main schools' athletics postponed until Wednesday December 2.

However the schools have run their own events and whether the South School Colour Fun Run had any influence or not, certainly South School seniors showed their class by winning both A-Grade events.

Times were fast and South School girls broke the record set by Norsewood in 2018 of 58.38 seconds with a time of 57.51 seconds, 0.25 faster than the South School boys.

After the competition relays, schools compiled mixed teams and even the adults entered.

The interschool competition was held in beautiful weather on Wednesday December 2 with track and field events running all day. Results and pictures next week.