Whanganui athlete Rosa Meyer (505) made a huge improvement on her 3000m time this season.
Awards ceremonies in both sport and other areas of life inevitably produce controversy and tend to provide more heat than light.
The Oscars and other showbusiness awards provide interest each year but, at times, considerable controversy. Most sports celebrate with an awards evening which provides recognition for the successful and a television opportunity.
Athletics Whanganui has no awards, with the exception of the Toby Bowyer Trophy for the leading middle-distance runner.
This article concludes my review of the season. In the first article, I looked at our medal-winners and reflected on how the athletes in our club continue to punch above their weight. The second article focused on our outstanding and hard-working volunteers, highlighting the work of our officials in a very busy season, notably in the early months of 2023. In last week’s article, I highlighted our two ex-patriot world championship selections and Juliet McKinlay, our leading junior athlete.
With awards in mind, I will stick my neck out to nominate my leading male and female club athletes and look at our most improved athlete.
Athletes are always seeking improvement, as are their coaches. Personal bests, often referred to in this column, provide motivation for athletes, although, as one athlete remarked to me, a world record is “just another guy’s personal best”.
With that in mind, young athletes need to remember, as they move to elite levels, personal bests are harder to achieve.
A number of Whanganui athletes have made great progress over the year, with Thomas Gowan, Damian Hodgson and Oliver Jones standing out among the males and Paige Cromarty and Rosa Meyer among the females. Meyer stands out, in my view, with massive progress made over the first three months of the year. I had to ask for dispensation for her to run at the Athletics New Zealand Championships in March as she had not set a qualifying mark. Cyclone Gabrielle led to the cancellation of the MWA Championships in Palmerston and, with it, a last chance for qualification. Dispensation was given, and Meyer proved her worth by finishing 15 seconds inside the 3000-metre qualification performance in eighth place (10:41.37). Ten days later, she took another 12 seconds off her best to win at Whanganui Schools; a fortnight later at the North Island Schools champs, she sliced another 22 seconds off her best for bronze in 10:06.90.
In December, at the New Zealand Schools championships, Maggie Jones won the 100-metre and 300m hurdles, which she backed up with silver medals in the 100m and 400m hurdles at the Athletics New Zealand Championships, and she also ran in a gold medal-winning MWA 4x100 team. In Australia, she further highlighted her sprinting ability by winning gold as part of a New Zealand team at the Australian Championships. Jones, who has won a United States track and field scholarship, is my pick as the club’s leading female athlete.
In the males, Whanganui had two senior Athletics New Zealand champions - Lucas Martin (10,000m walk) and Jonathan Maples (400m hurdles). Martin wisely chose to enter in the senior grade of the combined grade 10,000m race walk as it offered the best chance of obtaining gold. He was rewarded with the senior gold, winning the combined grade race to add to his gold in the under-20 3000m event. In both events, Martin finished ahead of Jonah Croop, who had won the New Zealand Schools title ahead of him.
Maples tops the New Zealand rankings over 400m hurdles and was defending his New Zealand title. Maples’ win was more than a second faster than in 2022. He also ran in his first sprint final to finish sixth in the 200m, showing prowess as a sprinter. Maples gets my vote as the leading male athlete.
There is one annual club trophy, which was presented by the late Kevin Ross, a middle-distance champion who had been a member of a world record-breaking 4x1 mile team, performing in memory of his coach and former Whanganui club president, Toby Bowyer.
We have three strong candidates to be voted on by our committee. Two are former winners - Lucas Martin and Louise Brabyn. Martin’s credentials have been highlighted in this column. Brabyn won the NZ and North Island Schools steeplechase and was third in the Australian under-18 steeples, but Covid kept her out of the New Zealand Championships. Daniel Sinclair is my third nomination following his emphatic win in the under-20 New Zealand 1500m. He backed this up with a North Island Schools double over the 2000m steeplechase and 3000m. Sinclair set Whanganui Collegiate records in steeples and 1500m.
The committee has a difficult decision to make.