City College Year 9 student Riley Zimmerman will carry Whanganui hopes in the junior Regional Relay in Christchurch.
The first New Zealand Secondary Schools Cross Country was held at Cuthbert's Green Christchurch in 1973 in chilly damp conditions that turned to sleet by evening.
Wanganui Collegiate won the Senior Boys team title at this inaugural event.
The event has alternated between North and South Island since that time with only one exception when two consecutive events were held in the North.
Winter trips to the south have always presented travel challenges. In 1976 the ferry returned to Picton at Wellington Heads in mountainous seas arriving back in Picton over seven hours after departure.
I remember the night sleeping on board cursing that I had agreed to look after a team of 12 girls from Whanganui Girls College in addition to the Collegiate team for the return journey.
In 1983 travel delays meant that although athletes left Whanganui by air on the Thursday they only finally got to Christchurch two hours before Saturday's race. Two years ago it was the return journey that caused the problem with Whanganui cut off by the 2015 flood.
Thirty nine athletes from Whanganui will travel south for this year's edition of the championships in Christchurch. Twenty nine from Collegiate (the third largest team at this year's championships), nine from Whanganui High School with one from Whanganui City College and Nga Tawa.
Although numbers are slightly down this year the competition will be as tight as ever especially at the front end of each of the six races.
Olympian middle distance medal winner Nick Willis once stated that the senior boy's race was perhaps the hardest race to win in New Zealand. An athlete has to be at his or her best on that specific day. Willis never did manage a schools cross country victory. The senior girl's field this year has only 81 declared starters but a glance through the list of athletes shows that there are representatives from over 30 schools facing the starter that means over 30 individual school champions racing for a podium place.
All finishers in the top 10 receive a special certificate and these are coveted by athletes. In the senior races there is the added incentive that the top 12 athletes earn the right to run for New Zealand Schools at the Australian All Schools in Hobart in August.
Rebecca Baker (WHS) should give a strong account of herself in the junior girl's event having impressed on the Collegiate golf course in late May. At the Whanganui Championship she beat Collegiate Senior runners Caitlyn Alabaster and Jane Lennox.
Alabaster was eighth in last year's junior race and that indicates Baker has the potential for a top 10 certificate.
Liam Back (Collegiate) won the Dorne Cup on Saturday in the under 18 grade finishing in third behind two under 20 performers in the combined race. Fifteen-year-old Back looked smooth and providing he recovers from sickness at the weekend should give a good account of himself.
Team competition is an integral part of the championships. High School winners at Whanganui Schools senior boys race will hope to give a good account of themselves in the Senior race while Wanganui Collegiate field a strong three-to-score junior boys team headed by Back and the Whanganui Schools Year 9 winner George Lambert who steps up a grade to join Back and Sam Thrupp. Collegiate also have competitive teams in Senior and Year 9 Girls.
Linked to the event are the Regional Relays with teams of five in each grade competing in a 5x2000m relay at the same venue on the following day. This was trialled with success last year.
Whanganui will field teams in five of the six grades in Christchurch. It is this relay team element that has encouraged Georgina Bryant (Nga Tawa) to make the journey south where she will run in the Junior race on Saturday and be part of a relay combination the next day.
Riley Zimmerman (Whanganui City College) ran into second place in the Year 9 race behind George Lambert at the Whananui Schools. As mentioned above Lambert will run up a grade leaving Zimmerman to carry Whanganui hopes. Zimmerman, like Bryant, will run a relay on Sunday and it was this chance to represent Whanganui that has added to the attraction of making the winter journey. Zimmerman also headed a winning Whanganui City College team in the Year 9 race.
His team mates are not on this occasion but sense that Zimmerman is the start of a Whanganui City College running revival.