Team Wairarapa athletics coach Mark Harris was in raptures after several outstanding performances by his squad at the second round of the regional track and field meet held in Wellington on Saturday. With all events being open to all-comers achieving major placings was always going to be a difficult assignment forthe youthful Wairarapa contingent but they responded magnificently with many of them registering personal best times, heights or distances. "We couldn't have asked for anything more, the results were way above most expectations," Harris said. Perhaps the highest of numerous high points for Wairarapa was the effort of Zan Sinclair, 17, in finishing second in the 3000m walk His time of 15min 13secs was a huge improvement on his previous best of 16mins 16sec and all of three minutes better than he had registered at any part of last summer.. It was a performance which ranked Sinclair at the top of his age group in the country for the current athletics season and the same honour fell to Michael Wilson, 19 , after he won the 100m sprint in 10.89secs, the first time he had ever broken the 11 second barrier. Alex Fafeita, 13, was second in the discus with a best-ever throw of 41.48m while Vicki Paine broke the one minute barrier for the first time in the 400m, being clocked at 59.9secs in finishing third overall. Second in that event was Ellen Schaef, 17, in 59.37secs. William Simpson, 15, improved his previous best time for the 200m of 23.96secs when he was third in the 200m in a slick 23.36secs and his 100m time of 12 seconds was also a personal best for him. Cameron Sinclair,17. twin brother of Zac, was second in the 400m in a time of 53.46secs, improving on his previous best effort for that event of 53.55secs, and Chris Girling-McLean, 16, was competing over 400m for the first time this season when he clocked 50.99secs, just outside his personal best of 50.96secs. The women's high jump was notable for the effort of Wairarapa's Stevie Paine whose best-ever effort of 1.40m actually saw her earn 1274pts for Team Wairarapa, the highest by any individual in a competition which saw them placed fifth top club overall.
