Athletics
It was field eventer Emma Kruszona who provided the highlight for Wairarapa on a drama-filled first day of the North Island secondary schools track and field championships at the Pugh Sports Bowl on Saturday.
Kruszona dominated the intermediate girls hammer throw, winning the gold medal with a superb effort of 48.30m.
She had plenty to spare from runner-up MacKenzie Vitasovich (North Harbour) whose best throw was 40.16m and in third place was Losaline Ahio (Waikato-Bay of Plenty) with 36.42m. Not far off the medals was another Wairarapa entrant, Grace Quinn, who placed fifth with 35.65m.
It was unfortunate on a day in which some 800 athletes representing 11 centres - Northland, Auckland, North Harbour, Counties-Manukau, Waikato-Bay of Plenty, East Coast North Island, Taranaki, Wanganui, Manawatu, Wellington and Wairarapa - were primed to strut their stuff on the new all-weather track and throwing circles at the Masterton facility that a major glitch with the electronic timing created havoc with the posting of results of track races, and delayed the programme to the point where some of the events were completed in near dark.
Track announcer Mark Harris said the problems caught everybody by surprise as the timing system had been tested on Friday and came through with flying colours.
"It was very unfortunate and you have to take your hat off to the athletes, they handled it well considering some of them had to wait a lot longer for their races than what normally would have been the case ," he said.
Taranaki's Kyle van der Merwe came to the championships as one of the favoured contenders for the senior boys discus title and he did not disappoint, comfortably extending his own meet record of 56.64m set last year by registering a best throw of 57.61m on this occasion.
Montayta Wharehanga of Wellington won the senior girls hammer throw with 48.32m, the intermediate boys discus was won by Ben Power of Wellington with 52.09m, the intermediate girls javelin by Emma Fulbrook of Wellington with 41.76m, the junior girls hammer throw by Terelle Oneosemo of Wellington with 30.86m, and the junior boys discus by Metuaivivitoa Herman of Auckland with 46.43m.
There were few confirmed results posted from the track competition at the end of day one but Wairarapa sprinters Sian Chapman and Finn Yeats did make the finals of their senior girls and intermediate boys 100m events where they both finished just out of the medal placings, Tessa Laven was sixth in the final of the senior girls 800m and Alison Andrews-Paul fourth in the final of the intermediate girls 800m.