Lake City celebrate successful Colgate Games

Front:Trelise Howard, Cooper Simes, Nikita Harding. At back: Lillian Muir, Gisele Howard. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

Lake City Athletic Club are celebrating after a successful 2017 Colgate Games.

About 2500 athletes from around the country made the journey to Hawke's Bay Regional Sports Park in Hastings for the annual three-day event that ended on Sunday.

The local club had a team of six athletes competing but they made a big impact with 7-9-year-olds competing for pennants whilst 10-14-year-olds battled it out for medals.

The standout performance came from Gisele Howard, 12, who won the silver medal in the long jump - progressing through heats and finals to come away with the prize.

In the younger age group, Cooper Simes, 9, was one of several children to win a pennant for coming first in his long jump, 100m sprint, and 200m sprint events.

Trelise Howard, 9, also won pennants with a first in the 60m, second in the 100m, 200m and long jump and third in the discus.

Nikita Harding, 8, placed second in the long jump for her age group with many of the rest of the squad making finals in their events.

Lake City Athletic Club co-manager Rebecca Howard was delighted to see daughters Gisele and Trelise perform well but stressed the excellence from the whole team.

"I am so proud of them all. We may have had a small team but we represented Rotorua very well and it's important to remember a lot of the athletes they were competing against have professional input," she said.

"It's very difficult to get any sort of placings at these games because of how competitive it is and it gets harder as the athletes get older in their competitions.

"It's really amazing Gisele won a silver and she was just 1cm off the winner and Trelise really came through. But everyone had wonderful performances and we had a great team spirit."

Howard said the Colgate Games were like a "kids' Olympics".

"The officials were trained - it was a very professional event done very well. And the main motto for competitors was to respect the officials and respect other athletes.

"We are definitely hoping to go next year and see similar success. After this year all the athletes can take a lot of confidence from this and aim to do the best they can in the future. They are all superstars in my eyes."

All the 2017 Colgate Games results here:

2017 Colgate Games Lake City Athletic Squad:
Hannah Gapes, 13, Gisele Howard, 12, Lillian Muir, 11, Trelise Howard, 9, Nikita Harding, 8 and Cooper Simes, 9.

Day 1:

Gisele Howard, 12, silver medal - long jump (PB)

Trelise Howard, 9, 2nd place pennant - 200m

Lillian Muir, 11, 16th place 200m (PB) / 8th place - high jump

Nikita Harding, 8, 2nd place pennant - long jump

Cooper Simes, 9, Finalist - shot put

Day 2:

Gisele Howard, 12, 10th place - 1500m / 16th place - discus

Trelise Howard, 9, 2nd place - long jump/ 2nd place - 100m

Nikita Harding, 8, - Finalist ribbons - discus and 100m

Cooper Simes, 9, 1st place pennant- long jump / 1st place pennant 200m

Lillian Muir, 11, 17th place

Hannah Gapes, 13, 6th place - 1500m

Day Three:

Gisele Howard, 12, 10th place - 800m

Trelise Howard, 9, 1st place pennant - 60m/ 3rd place pennant - discus

Lillian Muir, 11, 7th place - long jump (PB)

Nikita Harding, 8, Finalist ribbon for 60m

Cooper Simes, 9, 1st place pennant-100m / finalist ribbon for discus

Hannah Gapes, 13, 6th place 800m