Fitzgibbon wins steeplechase gold

Levin athlete Courtney Fitzgibbon clears the water jump on her way to winning the 2000m hurdle event at the New Zealand secondary schools championship.

Waiopehu College student Courtney Fitzgibbon is a gold medal winner.

The 15-year-old was the sole representative from the region at the New Zealand Secondary School Athletics Championships at Inglewood against the best young athletes in the country.

Fitzgibbon backed up a bronze medal in the Junior Girls 3000-metre final with a gold medal in the Junior Girls 2000m steeplechase, while also competing in the Junior Girls 1500m final. She easily recorded personal best times in all three events.

Levin athlete Courtney Fitzgibbon with her medal haul.

Fitzgibbon produced a strong effort to win steeplechase gold in a field of 12, safely negotiating 23 solid wooden fences along the way.

She stayed with the main pack for the first lap, before making a move and putting what turned out to be a winning gap between her and the rest, eventually winning comfortably by 15 seconds.

Fitzgibbon received some sound advice from her father Blair, who had told her to “run fast”.

Her winning time of seven minutes and 19 seconds for the steeplechase eclipsed her previous personal best time by 16 seconds. She clocked 10:16 to win a bronze medal in the 3000m.

Fitzgibbon was coached in Palmerston North by George McConachy. She belonged to the Palmerston North Athletics and Harrier club during the summer months, then joined the the Feilding Moas Harrier club for cross-country in winter.

She is the regional champion for both road racing and cross-country, and was ranked third nationally for both disciplines at junior level in NZ.

Those outstanding results have seen her awarded the Waiopehu College Dux Ludorum for Sport the last two years, while she also won the award for Top Scholar for Year 11 recently.

- Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ on Air.