College sport: Favourite wins cross-country title

By DAVE WORSLEY

Fairfield College student Shafat Salad lived up to pre-race expectations with a stylish win at the Waikato/Bay of Plenty cross-country champs at Kihikihi. Salad won the senior boys title by a minute in 20m 14s over the 6km course.

Mt Maunganui College students Daniel Moses and Steve Van der Saln were second and third respectively, helping their school wrestle the senior cup away from Tauranga Boys.

Sarah Morgan of Matamata College won the senior girls' title by more than a minute and is looking good to retain the national title she won at Trentham last year.

Camille Buscombe of Cambridge High won the junior girls race over 3km in 11m 39s. She finished .09 of a second ahead of the equally impressive Sara McSweeney of Morrinsville College.

The secondary schools cross-country champs will be held at the Wingatui Racecourse in Dunedin on Saturday. A schools' athletics forum will be held in Dunedin on Friday.

SOCCER

Hamilton Boys High have qualified for the national premier schoolboys tournament in Napier in August after their 4-1 win over Tauranga Boys College.

The result was a good effort for Hamilton Boys as Tauranga are regular top-eight finishers in national competitions.

Tauranga and Rotorua Boys' High must now apply for tournament wildcards, while Hamilton Boys will want to improve on their fourth placing last year.

SWIMMING

It's not often a high school student can say he is ranked in the top three in the world in a senior sport.

But Rangitoto College's Corney Swanepoel can do just that, albeit in a laid back way.

Swanepoel, 18, is ranked third in the world over the 100m butterfly with a time of 52.5s, swum at the New Zealand nationals in March. He is just .04s behind second-ranked Todd Cooper of Great Britain and not so far behind world number one and Athens favourite Michael Phelps, who has a time of 51.84s.

Swanepoel is also the youngest swimmer inside the world's top 35.

His next meet is in Brisbane early next month before he and the Kiwi swim team leave for Greece on July 28 for some pre-Olympic training . Even with a busy schedule of training at the Millennium Institute which includes plenty of miles in the pool he says school's been cool about his training.

SOCCER/RUGBY

Auckland Grammar came away the big winner in the annual soccer/rugby battle with King's College.

An estimated 5000 watched Grammar win the first XI match 3-2 after trailing 1-2 at half time.

Grammar then won the first XV game 31-10.

On Saturday, Auckland Grammar go head to head with Mt Albert Grammar in a soccer-rugby clash which is sure to pull in the crowds.

DUATHLON

In one of the largest fields to contest a secondary schools' duathlon event in Auckland, about 300 students ran, cycled and ran again at Maraetai Beach for the Auckland championships.

The senior girls race was dominated by Diocesan School as Jacqui Seebold secured her second Auckland title. She won the triathlon title in March. Following her across the line were her team-mates Olivia Spencer in second and Alexandria Gibson in third.

The senior boys race was expected to be a contest between Macleans' Bruce Hunter and a host of others including Andrew Curtayne of St Kentigern.

The pair swapped the lead on several occasions before Curtayne pulled away from Hunter to win by 28s in a fast time of 58m 38s.

They were joined on the podium by Tim McIntosh from Auckland Grammar, who managed to run down Curtayne's twin brother, William, to secure the bronze.

Coming Up:
Saturday: Soccer, 1A competition (home side first, midday starts) Kelston Boys v Rangitoto; St Peters v Westlake Boys, Simpson Reserve; Auckland Grammar v Mt Albert.

Rugby, A1 first XV: Macleans v St Peters; Auckland Grammar v Mt Albert; Kelston Boys v Sacred Heart; Onehunga v Otahuhu; King's v Tangaroa; St Paul's v De La Salle.

Cross-country, New Zealand champs, Wingatui, Dunedin.

Sunday: Kartsport, Auckland champs, Patiki Rd.