Those who did were rewarded with excellent warm conditions and mostly favourable tailwinds for sprinters and jumpers but at a strength that did not affect our middle-distance runners.
In the opening 100 metres, Maggie Jones, Yasmin Christenhusz and Morgan Wilson all set best times, with Jones again having the bad luck of running in the only race where the wind was above the allowable level.
Jonathan Maples had even worse fortune, straining a hamstring after looking so good over the first 50 metres. This was hugely disappointing for an athlete on the comeback trail and a sad loss in terms of points for the team.
Edie Franks impressed with a strong personal best win in the 200 metres (27.40) while there were personal bests from Filipe Bayly and Max Herdman in the half lap sprint.
Bella Willis ran an outstanding 400 metres, taking 0.4 off her previous best, stopping the clock at 57.63 seconds to win by almost three seconds.
Her teammate Josephine Perkins finished third with her best one lap time, which she further improved on Tuesday at the final Club Night. Willis confirmed with her performance that as a junior she would have featured strongly at the cancelled New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships.
She can approach the second half of the season with renewed confidence as she moves into the senior grade. Willis's effort scored 918 points on World Athletics comparative tables to leap-frog Maggie Jones into second place (887 for her 100-metre hurdles).
Jones had a big winning margin over the 300-metre hurdles, and again a teammate ran a personal best time behind her. Jones looked all class as she smoothly negotiated the seven flights of hurdles in 45.89 seconds and it is clear that stronger competition will see faster times. Pascale Bowie in second (50.92) looks set for considerable progress in the second half of the season.
Whanganui's other winner was Jacky Dai in the triple jump, jumping 13.12 metres just shy of his personal best set a year ago. Dai had two 13-metre jumps in his best ever series and he can go into the second half of the season with new confidence.
Fellow Whanganui Collegiate jumper Yasmin Christenhusz had a memorable day in Masterton, a just reward for this hard-working Year 13 athlete. She set her best in the 100 metres in coming second in the B race, set another best in the long jump (4.72) finishing third and left the best to last when she jumped over 10 metres for the first time in the triple jump to finish second in 10.16 metres.
Middle-distance runner Toby Caro, 15, continued to set personal bests on the track. At every meeting this term, from 400 metres through to 3,000 metres including the 2,000 metres Steeplechase and the popular 2000 metre Road Race.
Caro ran a sensible, even-paced 3,000 metres, with just about even splits for each kilometre. He moved through the field in the final laps, going from ninth to a highly creditable fifth against older and more experienced athletes.
Caro's time of 9:15.66 took five seconds off his previous best set at Club Night in early November, which was in turn 40 seconds better than his Term 1 best. Middle-distance teammate Louis Brabyn may not have set a personal best but showed aggressive front- running tactics over 1,500 metres to come second in the race (4:52 .39).
Further back in the field, 14-year-old Greta Darke ran her fourth successive personal best (5:21.43) and can enjoy a holiday back on her King Country farm looking forward to her first full season on the track.
Tuesday's Club Night was the final one for 2021 run under the red traffic light regulations. We all hope to move to orange and that 2022 is better for us all. Club nights resume on Tuesday, January 18.
