Athletics: Relays a good way of bringing teams to the sport and for starting the season

Harry Unsworth leads a group of runners at a previous Whanganui Collegiate School house relay. Photo / Supplied

Every year, as the leaves begin to fall, summer middle-distance track runners increase their mileage and think about the cross-country challenges that lie ahead over the approaching winter.

The long spell of good weather has perhaps lulled many into thinking the winter season hasn't really started; it certainly has. Major events such as Dorne Cup, and the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships, are only a few weeks away in June. The North Island and Centre Championships in July provide important build-up races for the New Zealand Cross Country Championships to be held in Taupō at the Spa Thermal Park on July 30.

Relays, as mentioned often in this column, are popular for bringing a team aspect to the sport and these are particularly popular at the start of the season. Locally the season opened with the Anzac Relays at Victoria Park on April 23, a couple of days ahead of the actual holiday. Although a smaller event than many years ago athletes enjoyed the glorious sunshine and the nature of the race with its one-kilometre loop around Victoria Park. There were four in each team running or walking two one-kilometre laps each. The course was excellent for spectators - athletes were visible throughout and passed the changeover zone before running their final lap. I hope the successful nature of this year's events attracts more clubs next year.

Whanganui secondary schools experimented with relays last year but tried to hold them in conjunction with the traditional championships over longer distances including the traditional three and six to score team events. Having two different concepts at the same venue had mixed results. Although the slide in participation was addressed, the fact that athletes could choose what event they could enter led to some weakening of competition in both.

This year Sport Whanganui will be conducting two events that will, I am sure, address the problems of last year. The relays in three grades in both genders in each with teams of four will be running over a two-kilometre lap on the excellent Tawhero Golf Course. The event will be held next Tuesday (May 17). The relays should be both competitive and enjoyable and it is hoped that all eight schools will support the event. I am certainly excited about this new venture. The grades will be combined with the girls' race at 12:40pm and the boys at 1pm. It will be spectator-friendly and the team nature will add to the excitement. We are grateful to River City Golf and manager Ivan Howe for their support and encouragement.

The individual championship will be held a week later at Victoria Park (Tuesday, May 24) over New Zealand secondary schools distances. This provides excellent preparation, especially for athletes competing at the New Zealand Schools Championships in Nelson on June 18. The New Zealand Schools event also has a relay component on the day following the championships in Nelson (the same distance as the Tawhero race next week).

Relays also provide excellent preparation for individual races. Whanganui Collegiate has for more than four decades held a relay race involving all students a week or more prior to the individual Inter-House Championships. Houses field teams of three runners with at least one female in each team in what is a mixed relay. The result is calculated on the average position of each of the teams competing. Each leg is two kilometres and with all the school running comes action, excitement, and great and meaningful preparation for the Championships (again all compete) 11 days later on Friday June 3. The championships are over three grades for boys and girls and will be run over two laps of the 1.5 kilometres at the back of the boarding houses).

A strong Whanganui Collegiate boys' team of six and a girls' team of four will have competed in Wellington, the day before this article is published, at the 43rd Annual Wellington Scottish College Relays. The relays, with the excellent depth of competition in Wellington, provides preparation for the runners and are always a highlight of the early season. Whanganui Collegiate were second last year and an almost full-strength team would like to go one better. There is depth also in the girls' team but as the event clashed with a winter exchange with Scots College, they are below full strength. Three of the team will come straight from the National Hockey Stadium to the relays.

The Round the Lake Relay held annually in September is a couple of years older than the Wellington Relays but Covid led to cancellations in both 2020 and last year. We hope to return on September 5 for our 43rd Virginia Lake celebration.