A good meeting could have been even better had more made the effort to travel, and for some it was an opportunity lost – including school-age athletes, where Masterton provided good competition just a fortnight out from the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships to be held in Hastings in the first weekend in December.
There was some quality at the meet, notably in the 100m men, with five runners clocking under 11 seconds for the sprint.
Among these was Whanganui New Zealand 400m hurdle champion Jonathan Maples, who won both the 100m and 200m to round off an outstanding League programme.
Over the three Central meets, Maples won seven sprint races. In Inglewood he won all three sprints (100, 200, 400m); in Whanganui he ran the 100m into a stiff headwind and backed this up with a personal best 48.20 over the one lap.
In Masterton he had a slow 100m start, struggling to get out of the blocks and was out of the places after 20m. He came through to win, recording a personal best 11.65 (with a light 0.2 m/s tail wind). Maples looked better out of the blocks in the 200m but was unlucky to face the only significant headwind of the day (1.3 m/s).
Maples stopped the clock at 21.55 seconds, which was his best legal 200m.
He has just about completed the first phase of his season.
He runs as part of an invitation New Zealand 4x100m squad in Hastings at the end of next week, who have been invited to run in the senior boys 4x100m heats, chasing a good early-season marker for the New Zealand Relay Initiative.
This will conclude the first period of training, which he can look back on with some satisfaction as he has set personal bests over all three sprints (although over 200 metres he ran faster last summer assisted by a strong tailwind).
The value of competition was highlighted by the small Whanganui group, including many young inexperienced athletes who recorded 19 personal and a further six season’s bests at Masterton.
The Year 9 Whanganui Collegiate 4x100m team, who will be running in the junior under-16 grade at New Zealand, took two seconds off their Whanganui time and although they still have some way to go, the team will have gained confidence.
Anchor leg runner Harlynn Faalili ran new bests over 200m and 400m, while Katreena Luk, who ran first in the relay, sliced 0.2 seconds off her 100m best.
Auguz Thongskul was only one-hundredth of a second shy of his 100m best and his 6.55m winning long jump was only 6cm below his best.
Tilly Darke sliced nearly three seconds off her 800m time (2m 25.67s), while James McGregor and Grace Fannin set season bests over 300m hurdles and Bruce McGregor had a significant improvement over the shorter 100m hurdles.
Juliet McKinlay again scored big points for Palmerston North and season bests in high jump, javelin, 100m hurdles and 200m are timely reminders that McKinlay is coming into form at a good time.
While there is no heptathlon at New Zealand Secondary Schools meet, McKinlay will include throwing, jumping and hurdling among her four events.
Year 9 Whanganui Collegiate boarder Phoebe Corin continued to impress in throwing events, with personal bests in both shot and javelin and scoring valuable points for her home Paraparaumu club.
Next week I will preview Whanganui athletes attending the New Zealand Secondary Schools Track and Field and Road Race Championships to be held in Hastings.
