Wairarapa athletes were on fire on the opening two days of the New Zealand track and field championships in Christchurch over the weekend with their medal tally standing at three golds and two bronzes.
Pre-meet speculation that Wairarapa could be a dominant force in the younger age groups proved spot onwith all of the medals coming in the 16yrs and under division, and that despite their doing the bulk of their preparation on grass surfaces rather than the all-weather tracks available in most other provinces.
Gold medals on the track came from Stevie Paine in the 800m and April Campbell in the 100m hurdles and both in personal best times.
Paine clocked an impressive 2mins 14.46secs in beating Anna Kean of Otago (2.15.11) and Jennie Hauke of Auckland (2.17.19).
Campbell was a class above her hurdles competition. She finished in 14.80secs with Rebecca Andrews of Waikato-Bay of Plenty second on 15.35secs and Ashleigh Sando, also of Waikato-Bay of Plenty, third in 15.43secs. Campbell had earlier made the 100m final on the flat, finishing fifth.
In the field, it was Alex Fafeita who won gold for Wairarapa. He was expected to dominate the hammer throw event and while only two of his six throws counted, his best effort of 48.43m was a personal best and more than 5m better than the runner-up.
Another Fafeita, Alex's sister Courtnay, came up with bronze medals in her discus and hammer throw finals. In the discus she threw 40.80m to place third behind Leesa Lealaisalonoa of Wellington (49.93m) and Merewarihi Vaka of Auckland (47.75m) and in the hammer throw she was third with a personal best throw of 42.91m to Julia Ratcliffe of Auckland, whose 54.97m was a national record for the age group, and Rebecca Hodgson of Canterbury (45.82m).
There were several other notable efforts from Wairarapa athletes. Michael Wilson was seventh in the senior men's 100m in 10.87m, Vicki Paine was seventh in the women's 400m in 58.91secs and Molly Creagh was fifth in the girls 16yrs and under 400m.
