Whanganui athletes are about to get on the blocks for the new season. Photo / Rob van Dort
We are on the eve of a new season and after the cancellations of the past two years, there is a sense of expectation and excitement for athletes.
We have confirmed Tuesday, October 18 as opening night for Seniors at 7pm where we will be running the C programme of odd distances, 60m, 150m, 3000m and the popular 2000m road race to start the season, with shot and triple jump in the field.
The Club Nights continue on a weekly basis until early December. The full programme is on the Athletics Whanganui website and a weekly timed programme will also appear on the website a few days prior to the weekly Club Nights.
At a recent Athletics Whanganui Committee meeting significant changes have been made to our Club Nights.
We have kept the category for younger children on Monday evenings at 3.30 pm.
This targets our youngest participants right up to Year 6 at Primary School.
We are fortunate that leading Whanganui High School athletes Maggie Jones and Nat Kirk will continue running the programme into November and will help a successor continue and build on its success.
The two have been helped by other leading young Whanganui Collegiate and High School athletes. The club is actively searching for a person or persons to take on this role and will look at remuneration. The search is on for the right person or persons.
The major change is that the later session on Monday that targeted Intermediate School aged athletes Year 7 and 8 has been moved to be incorporated with the senior Club session starting on Tuesday, September 25.
This will mean an earlier start on Tuesday to cope with the additional younger athletes at 6.30pm through to 7.30 pm with Seniors running on until 8.15pm.
This is, I believe, a positive move as it gives experience and encouragement for the Year 7 and 8 athletes. That's important, especially in the season where the Colgate North Island Games is being held at Cooks Gardens at the start of January.
Colgate is a major event and a real boost to the local economy.
The Senior Club Night, alongside the usual secondary school and senior athlete events, will also focus on Masters Events in preparation for the New Zealand Master Games at the start of February, another major economic event for the city.
The Pak'n Save Cooks Classic featured in last week's Insight is a week before the Masters on January 28 and along with the Sir Peter Snell Challenge on the following day (Sunday January 29) provides a trifecta of major events at Cooks Gardens.
School age athletes have a busy early season with the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships in Inglewood from Friday, December 9 to Sunday, December 11.
The weekly Club Nights and the Regional League Meetings at fortnightly intervals (the first in Hastings on Saturday, October 29) provide vital preparation for the Championships.
This is the 50th anniversary of the New Zealand Secondary Schools Association and Inglewood will be the 49th Championships.
Inglewood was the scheduled venue for the 2021 cancelled event.
Secondary school athletes also had the April North Island Schools Championships cancelled, making the Inglewood event especially important.
For Year 13 athletes this is their last championship and has additional significance.
Whanganui High School athlete Maggie Jones, who won Athletic New Zealand medals in March (gold and silver), hopes to do even better in Inglewood and again represent New Zealand Secondary Schools in the team competing at all three early 2023 Classics.
Teammate Nat Kirk had a difficult summer with injury keeping him out of the National Championships in March.
He hopes to repeat his outstanding success as a Junior.
Whanganui Collegiate sprinter Bella Willis, who also had a difficult early part of the calendar year and was injured at the end of her hockey season, could well make a breakthrough this season.
Greg Fromont's Whanganui High School sprint group looks strong and could well make an impact in relays.
Myron Lewenilolovo, although relatively inexperienced, could make a breakthrough over 100m and 200m while Year 11 Damian Hodgson is looking good for the longer sprints.
The Whanganui Collegiate School distance squad is strong.
Daniel Sinclair, James Hercus and Louise Brabyn hope to continue their strong performances last year backed up by solid cross country performances.
Toby Caro and Greta Darke are two younger athletes to look for with Year 9 Juliet McKinlay showing promise in jumps, hurdles, and sprints with clear heptathlon potential.
The new exciting season starts at 7pm next Tuesday evening at Cooks Gardens.