Athletics: Three former Whanganui athletes awarded Blues at Canterbury University

Former Whanganui athletes Lexi Maples (left), Max Attwell and Sophie Redmayne have been awarded Blues for sport by the University of Canterbury. Photo / Suze Redmayne

It was good to hear of three former Whanganui athletes who were recently awarded their Blues Awards for sport at the University of Canterbury.

It was pleasing that Whanganui played a part in the pathway for three out of the 40 awarded at the university.

I have reported through this column on the successes of many former Whanganui athletes who have received athletics scholarships in the United States and it is good to be able to report that the US is not the only pathway for success. The awards to Max Attwell and Lexi Maples were for achievements as track and field athletes and the third was to Sophie Redmayne for hockey. Redmayne, however, provides a good example of how summer involvement in athletics can play an important part in the development of speed, movement skills and endurance for other sports.

Max Atwell left Whanganui Collegiate in 2014, when he made his first major impact in track and field, having taken up the sport only a year earlier in year 12. Decathlon was recommended as a possible discipline to explore. In 2014, he was selected as a decathlete for the Athletics New Zealand junior team to the Oceania Championships where he won a gold medal. This followed his silver medal as a junior at the Athletics New Zealand Championships.

At the end of 2014, he won a gold medal in the 300m hurdles at the New Zealand Schools Championships held at Cooks Gardens, and was a member of Whanganui Collegiate School's winning 4x100 and 4x400 teams. In the latter, he was in the same team as Geordie Beamish who also has met considerable success in the US after leaving Whanganui Collegiate School. Both Attwell and Beamish were selected for the New Zealand Schools team at the conclusion of the New Zealand Schools Championships.

On leaving school, Attwell moved to Christchurch to be coached by Athletics New Zealand coach Terry Lomax, and won three New Zealand medals as a junior in 2015. Since 2016, he has won six Athletics New Zealand senior men's gold medals, two silver medals and four bronze medals.

Attwell has won three consecutive Athletics New Zealand decathlon titles (2019-21) and represented New Zealand at the Oceania Championships in 2017, winning the decathlon title. He competed at the World University Games in 2019 in Naples, where he finished fourth in the decathlon. Former Whanganui athlete Scott Newman was manager of the team in Naples.

Lexi Maples also went to Christchurch to work with Terry Lomax as a heptathlete following her junior heptathlon silver medal in 2017, the year before she left school. At school, Maples was a finalist in both shot and hammer and was a member of the silver medal-winning Whanganui Collegiate 4x100 relay team.

Maples, as highlighted in an earlier article, has battled many setbacks. She switched events to hammer throwing and is coached by Athletics New Zealand coach Dale Stevenson. She is part of a squad that includes Olympic bronze medal shot putters Dame Valerie Adams, Tom Walsh and Olympian Lauren Bruce (hammer).

Maples had an outstanding 2020-21 season, making solid progress in her new event, and won her first individual medal (hammer) and her first senior medal at the Athletics New Zealand Championships in Hastings in March. Her 53.77m hammer throw ranks her sixth in the 2020-21 rankings where only 2m separate fourth to seventh. Maples hopes to reach her 60m target in the months ahead and consolidate a move upwards in the rankings behind Olympians Julia Ratcliffe and Lauren Bruce.

Sophie Redmayne's award came for hockey, where she has made outstanding progress in Canterbury following her success at Whanganui and in Central Districts.

Redmayne was also a competent and courageous hurdler. Track and field proved valuable conditioning for hockey in terms of endurance and speed. Redmayne ran for Whanganui Collegiate in cross-country, but her major contribution was as a member of successful relay teams. The team aspect and the speed base for hockey were seen by Redmayne as especially valuable. From 2016 to when she left Whanganui Collegiate at the end of 2019, Redmayne ran in seven medal-winning teams over 4x100m and 4x400m that included four gold medals and three silver medals, and further medals at Athletics New Zealand Championships as part of the Manawatū/Whanganui Centre team. Redmayne ran in three teams that set New Zealand Secondary Schools records.

Next week I will round up recent Club Night action and also report on the Regional League Meeting to be held in Inglewood at the weekend.