Young star shines at Waipu Highland Games

Bagpipes, tartan and outstanding feats of sporting excellence launched the New Year at the 139th annual Waipu Highland Games yesterday.
The skirl of the pipes was never out of hearing of the 5000 people who enjoyed the unique family event in  bright sunshine, cheering former Northlander Patrick Hellier on to his 14th title triumph in the annual New Zealand Highland Heavyweight Championships.
And Hellier's feat was equalled in brilliance by a rising star, 15-year-old schoolgirl Tina Hakeai, who dominated the women's Highland events and beat a sheaf-tossing record set by Olympic shotput champion Valerie Vili, who is coached by Hellier's wife, Kirsten.
Hakeai, an Auckland Girls' Grammar School fourth former, tossed a 14lb (5.225kg) sheaf over an 8m high bar, topping the national record Vili set in 2003 by a metre.
Earlier, Hakeai had won all four events in the women's section of the Highland games, and was runner-up in the novice and senior men's hammer throw.
Her fulltime coach, Nigel Edwards, said his young Tongan protege had the potential to eventually challenge Vili's feats as a shotputter and former world champion Beatrice Faumuina as a discus thrower.
"Athletics New Zealand has just selected Tina for the 2016 Olympics squad," he said.
"She has put the shot 5m further than Valerie did at her age and thrown the discus 2m further than Beatrice did as a young teenager."
The March of the Clans at the main gate of Waipu's Caledonian Park set the Scottish tone of the occasion, with clan societies from around the country displaying their tartan and banners.
The Games were opened by former Governor General and Auckland Mayor Dame Catherine Tizard, who also presented prizes for some of the cultural and sporting contests.
Piping, drumming and Highland dancing competitions drew big crowds, and there was a particular interest in a fiddle-playing contest, revived after being dropped at the Games about 90 years ago.
The event drew 16 competitors and the senior section was won by John Smith, of Wellington, who was presented with a trophy by Clan Donald head Harold McIssac.
Patrick Hellier, who became world champion caber tosser with a win at the Edinburgh Challenge in Scotland last year, again asserted his dominance in the New Zealand Highland Heavyweight events with his 77-point win - 14.5 points clear of Australian Craig Reid in second place on 62.5.
Both are policemen - Hellier in Auckland and Reid, 43, a former Australian Highland Heavyweight champion, in New South Wales.
In third place on 57 points was Johnno McFarlane, of Auckland, a massive 22-year-old who is the Commonwealth junior powerlifting record holder and was judged New Zealand's strongest man in 2008.
The fiercely competitive McFarlane, in training to be a Baptist pastor, was a crowd pleaser with his mighty efforts to master the techniques needed to succeed in the Highland competitions.
Waipu Caledonian Society secretary Wayne Laurence said the 140th Games in 2011 would be a two-day event.