Cross Country: Whanganui Collegiate's Ana Brabyn joins NZ team for world champs

Whanganui Collegiate's Ana Brabyn is a late addition to the NZ Schools team that will attend the ISF World Schools Cross Country championships in April.

Whanganui Collegiate distance competitor and team relay runner Ana Brabyn is a late addition to the New Zealand Schools cross country team that will compete at the ISF World Schools in the Slovak Republic next year.

Brabyn takes an available spot in the 12-strong squad, consisting of six boys and six girls, and will join her school mates George Lambert and Ashleigh Alabaster.

At the recent NZ Secondary Schools Championships in Wellington, Brabyn claimed a bronze in the junior 800m, while she was part of the Collegiate team that took silver in the 4x400m relay – behind a Motueka High School squad that broke the national record Collegiate set the year before.

In November, Brabyn and her team mates Sophie Redmayne, Emma Osborne, Tayla Brunger, and Genna Maples had been named the Junior Team of the Year at the 2019 Whanganui Sports Awards for winning the 2018 NZSS title and getting silver at the NZ Athletics Championships against centre teams.

Coach Alec McNab said Brabyn's selection for the ISF World Schools continues the strong local representation in national squads in the past few years.

In cross country, Collegiate's Liam Back went to the ISF champs in Paris last year, while Jane Lennox and team captain Christian Conder went in 2016 to Hungary.

Back, Sarah Lambert, Zach Bellamy and Whanganui High School's Rebecca Baker attended the Australian Schools championships on the Sunshine Coast last year, while this year Baker, Back and Lambert went again, alongside Collegiate's George Lambert and Andres Hernandez.

In track and field, the 2017 Australian Schools champs in Adelaide were attended by Osborne, Maples, Brunger, Grace Godfrey and Kieran Pere, while 2018 saw Maples, Brunger and Osborne return to the event in Cairns, alongside Back.

This year's Athletics Australia Championships in Sydney were attended by Maples, Sophie Williams, Lucas Martin and Whanganui High's Maggie Jones.

The 2020 New Zealand team with Brabyn, Alabaster and George Lambert will depart for Europe in early April.