Hot performances on chilly night

Jason Myers (left) impressed in the 400 metres stopping the clock at 52.05 seconds for an excellent first up performance at the Wanganui Collegiate Championships on Tuesday.

A chilly opening night that doubled as the Wanganui Collegiate Championships produced some hot early season performances.

There were none hotter than Gena Maples who took three titles with a series of outstanding performances. In the 100 metres, running into a strong head wind that thankfully died away as the evening progressed, she ran her second fastest ever time of 12.40 seconds that was only .04 off her best that places the 14-year-old third in the NZ under 18 rankings.

Olivia Seymour, recovering from injury, was second in 13.07 with what was an encouraging season opener.

Later in the evening Maples won the 300 metres in a personal best 41.5 (hand timed).
After a great battle with Emma Osborne (also selected for the NZ Schools Team to Australia in 400m) who also set a best over the distance.

The 300 metres was scheduled to be the race of the evening with two other New Zealand selected athletes scheduled to start. Unfortunately Grace Godfrey did not finish the 100 metres (hamstring) and Tayla Brunger did not start because of injury (preventative).

There was however, much encouragement from both the Maples and Osborne performances.

Sophie Redmayne celebrated her 16th birthday with a pleasing 44.3 to take third. Maples rounded off an excellent hour with a 5.30 metre long jump immediately after the 300 metres.

Jason Myers impressed in the 400 metres stopping the clock at 52.05 seconds for an excellent first up performance. Cricketer Ben Kelt was second in 55.18 demonstrating 4x400 metre relay potential.

Oliver O'Leary ran a personal best 11.78 to win the 100 metres from potential decathlete Richmond Wells by one hundredth of a second in the closest finish of the day. Wells also set a best. Both athletes were probably pleased that North Island Schools 100 metre finalist Cody Hemi was only metres away in the infield practicing with the Whanganui Heartland Rugby team.

Liam Back won the 1500 metres by a wide margin from Liam Jones running as a guest in the championships. Back was chasing a personal best and was inside the schedule after the first lap but a poor second lap cost him the time he was looking for. Back came home with an excellent 61.5 last 400 metres to leave him less than half a second shy of his best. Back should be delighted with his 4:13.60 solo effort in chilly conditions and can approach the challenges ahead with confidence.

The girls 1500 metres had a similar front running and convincing win from New Zealand Schools representative Tessa Webb from Feilding. Webb, in her first race for two months, was just outside the 5 minute mark (5:01.37). Sarah Lambert came home well to take second in 5:12.48 and had she stayed in closer contact would probably have come inside her previous best by some margin. Less than a second separated Jane Lennox, Caitlyn Alabaster and her sister Ashleigh (third to 5th places) and it is clear that times will rapidly improve with more racing.

Lexi Maples, who is nursing an injury, won the shot with an 11.44 metre effort. She threw marginally further competing with the males which was won by Finau Nimatasau 11.19 metres and she did record a throw just out of sector of 12.15 metres.

New Zealand Schools triple jumper Keiran Pere took the long jump with a 5.86 metre effort. Although he prefers the more demanding triple jump there were signs in his six jump series that he will soon be jumping in the mid 6 metre range.

Next week is the second week of the championships which are open to all school age athlete's.

The events are 200 metres, 800 metres and hurdles on the track with discus and high jump in the field. There will be a masters 800 metres following on from this week's masters 1500 metres won by Tessa Webb's Feilding-based MWA Centre chairman Rob Dabb with Paul Duxfield in second place. There is also a 3000 metres on the programme
The first Regional League is on October 28 in Inglewood.