Athletics: In-form Daniel Sinclair sets new PB

In-form Daniel Sinclair, who is in his final year at Whanganui Collegiate.

The local 2023-2024 season moved into its third week and it was pleasing that a further 18 athletes, either first-timers or making their first appearance of the season, joined Tuesday night’s action.

This Saturday sees the first competition for our athletes away from Cooks Gardens with the Central League teams competition in Inglewood. The league has been important for athletes and clubs in the lower North Island for some years.

The format has changed over the past decades and although it is no longer a lead-up to a national teams final, it has continued to be a valued part of pre-Christmas track and field action for leading North Island clubs.

This includes teams from Wellington, Wairarapa, Hawkes Bay, Palmerston North, Taranaki and Whanganui. The competition is invaluable for school-age athletes preparing for the New Zealand Secondary Schools Track, Field and Road Race Championships, and for post-school athletes, providing good early-season competition as part of the season’s plan.

The format has been based on ability rather than being grade-related and this ensures good competition for all athletes, regardless of age or ability. Last season, the final two meetings saw five ability-graded heats of sprints for each gender, ensuring good competition for more than 70 sprinters.

Scoring is taken across the top eight performances with a maximum of two scorers from a club. Team points can therefore come from the second ability-graded heat.

There has been a growth of small entries from some of the clubs making up the 15 teams who competed last year. It is a team competition and this has been brought into the rules that clubs with less than eight competitors are not part of the team event.

There has been encouragement for these smaller clubs to combine. The league is also firming up on the necessity for each club entered to provide two officials.

As I have said many times in this column, the sport requires many officials and volunteers and as the whole athletics programme is covered, there is real pressure on organising clubs.

Our big test comes with our home league meet on Saturday, November 11 - the second in the series after Inglewood. The series concludes in Masterton a fortnight later on Saturday, November 25.

The first meeting venue is always alternated between Inglewood and Hastings. The second meeting, which is always early in the NCEA programme, is the most central, alternating between Palmerston North and Whanganui, which provides the least travel for teams at a pressure time for young athletes.

The final round is in Wellington or Masterton, with the latter being the venue for the past three years. The opening meet is always the smallest but fits well into our programme of two weeks between rounds, with the final round a fortnight before the New Zealand Secondary Schools competitions.

The Whanganui team will be sadly depleted this weekend with the annual clash with the Whanganui Collegiate School Prizegiving meaning that only a few Collegiate athletes will be able to attend. It also clashes with the Hunterville Shemozzle.

Fortunately, we will have more than the necessary eight in Inglewood and of course, have the home advantage at Cooks Gardens for the second meet.

Amongst athletes who will be missing are the in-form Daniel Sinclair, who is in his final year at Whanganui Collegiate. He will be running at Parkrun before the prizegiving ceremony at Whanganui Collegiate School.

The New Zealand under-20 1500 metres winner produced the performance of the night on Tuesday with a personal best of 1m 55.59s over 800m, a confidence boost 56 days out from NZSS and before any significant speed work.

Sinclair was helped on his way by his cousin James Hercus, who had missed a week of training with a niggling hip injury, but led him through nearly 600m. Hercus did his pace work splendidly running 600 metres in 1m 26s.

Sinclair was followed by his brother Matthew (2m 07.71s) and younger brother David kept it in the family, winning from the busy Sean Frieslar in the junior event. Frieslar won the 3000m, helping Masters athlete Sally Gibbs, who finished fifth in her final workout prior to the Auckland Marathon at the weekend.

Damian Hodgson, another who won’t be travelling on Saturday, won his 200m from high school teammate Thomas Gowan (25.52s, 25.57s), which suggests some good racing in the weeks ahead.

Jumper Presley Bretherton, still in Year 9, looked good in his 200m win but was beaten in the high jump by Chilean exchange Collegiate student Arturo Eyzaguirre, who won with a promising 1.60m effort.

Lulu Dufty, on her return to Cooks Gardens, won the female section with a 1.40m jump, Jaimie Munro won the Year 7 and 8 girls, with Isaac Ashworth taking the boys, both leaping 1.30m.