Wairarapa relay team break 50s in promising run

Their junior girls relay team provided the star act for Team Wairarapa at the regional inter-club track and field meet at a wet and windy Newtown Park in Wellington on Saturday.
In what was their final dress rehearsal for the national secondary schools championships in Timaru in a fortnight's time the Wairarapa College squad of April Campbell, Stevie Paine, Molly Creagh and Laura McKenna came up with a personal best time of 49.7secs.
It was the first occasion in three outings this season they had managed to break the magical 50secs barrier with earlier performances being still very impressive 50.36secs and 50.57secs.
Coach Mark Harris said Saturday's winning effort was the culmination of two months hard work during which slick baton changing had been a major focus.
"It's something you have to get right and I guess there has been a little bit of apprehension from the girls in that respect," Harris said, adding that the smoothness of the baton changes was a feature of Saturday's display. "They never looked like putting a foot wrong, it was an amazing run," he said.
Harris was also delighted with his senior women's 4 by 400m relay team which actually included just the one runner, Vicky Paine, who is not eligible for junior competition. She joined with fellow Wairarapa College pupils Molly Creagh, Stevie Paine and Laura McKenna to clock 4min 7secs, a time which would also make them very competitive at the national secondary school championships
Harris said their effort was made to look even better by the fact some of the runners were feeling fatigued firm earlier events and he suggested an even faster time would have almost certainly been recorded had they got into this relay in a fresh state.Even so they had all of 60 metres to spare from their nearest rivals.
Gun Wairarapa sprinter Michael Wilson had the satisfaction of breaking 50secs for the first time in his senior men's 400m race.He won in 49.88secs and achieved a personal pre-season goal in the process and earlier than both he and coach Harris had anticipated.
Harris said while Wilson still had the 100m and 200m events as his main focus there was a need to build stamina to make him stronger for those essays and Saturday's 400m time indicated he was moving in the right direction. A longer term aim for Wilson is to contest the sprints at the Australian nationals in Perth in April.
Wairarapa runners dominated matters in the women's 200m races at Newtown Park with pershaps the highlight there being April Campbell's effort to break 27secs for the first time this season. She was timed at 26.69secs and also won the 80m hurdles in a hand timed 12.38secs, that after a slow start caused by the starting pistol failed to fire on all cylinders.
Laura McKenna's winning 200m time of 26.05secs also represented her best effort for the current season while Stevie Paine was close behind in 26.09secs and Vicky Paine, who was battling injury, did well to register 27.2secs.
The men's 100m saw William Simpson clock his second fastest ever time of 11.52secs and he would probably have managed a personal best in the 200m too but for it being hand timed.He was given 22.09secs there.
Joel Farley came up with personal best times in both the 100m (12.81secs) and 200m (25.78secs) as did Bevan Brown.He ran the 100m in 12.98secs and the 200m in 26.81secs.And in the junior men's 400m Kurtis Paine was a full second inside his pb with a time of 60.35secs.
Saturday's meet was contested by athletes from Wanganui, Manawatu, Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, Wellington and Wairarapa and Harris was ":rapt to bits" with the competitiveness of the Wairarapa team, not only on the track but also in the field where several major placings were attained as well.