Ellen Schaef and Michael Wilson will be flying the Wairarapa flag at the IAFF track and field meeting in Auckland tonight. Schaef, 18, will contest the open women's 400m where she will match strides with some of the best in New Zealand over that distance & Anna Smyth (Dunedin), Charlotte Osborne(Hamilton) and Rebecca Gibson (Invercargill). Her coach Mark Harris believes Schaef is the form to better her personal best time of 57.4secs and, providing weather conditions are ideal, could actually clock in the high 56secs. "She (Schaef) has done the work and she's primed for a big one, this could be it," he said. Michael Wilson has been included in the A section of both the open men's 100m and 200m and he too will be up against some proven performers, including Beijing Olympian James Dolphin and Geoff Trumath, who came very close to qualifying to compete in Beijing as well. Harris also expects Wilson to record times inside his personal best, 10.97secs for the 100m and 21.7secs for the 200m, if the weather is calm. Several other Wairarapa athletes will travel to Newtown Park in Wellington tomorrow to contest a regional track and field meet there and, as usual, they should feature prominently in a wide range of events.
