Emma Osborne in winning form at the Regional Meeting in Masterton.
As we approach the festive season and the excitement of New Year, I have chosen in the last article of 2017 to look back at Whanganui athlete's performances this year through the current Athletics New Zealand rankings.
Whanganui junior athletes feature prominently on the rankings, reflecting the strong local secondary school programme.
The city boasts two athletes who top the under 18 women's' rankings, with both also appearing in combination in a relay team that tops the rankings.
In addition Whanganui has the leader in the under 20 male 200m rankings.
Emma Osborne won the New Zealand Schools junior 400m with an outstanding 56.57 second performance which also set the Wanganui Collegiate School senior record.
Osborne travelled as part of the New Zealand Schools team to the Australian Schools and also gained selection for the New Zealand Schools paper team – one of only two junior athletes – giving her access to some NZSS funding.
The other under 18 ranking leader is 14-year-old Genna Maples, who heads the Under 18 100m rankings with her 12.07 set when winning the NZ Schools junior title.
Maples and Osborne also combined in Australia with school team mate Tayla Brunger and Faith Araba of Hawera, running as a NZ Schools team in the 4x100m relay to top the rankings with a 48.67s performance.
Whanganui's other top ranked athlete is Harry Symes, who heads the 200m ranking with his 21.64s silver medal run at the Australian Championships earlier in the year.
It is hoped that Symes will make a return to the track in the New Year as he has the talent to be an outstanding sprinter.
Whanganui's most successful event has been Under 18 women's 400m, where the city has three of the top four athletes.
As mentioned above, Osborne heads the rankings, while Grace Godfrey is ranked third with her 56.94s clocking in San Diego in April, which at the time set a Collegiate record.
Tayla Brunger, who spent so much of the year injured, bounces in at fourth following her fifth place and season's best in Adelaide.
Brunger, who also enters the rankings as sixth in the 200m, was a member of the leading 4x100 team.
All three athletes can only benefit from regular competition in their own doorstep.
Genna Maples also ranks third in Long Jump and fourth in 200m, although her wind-aided silver medal at NZSS would place her second.
Maples joins with the others to provide a third place ranking in 4x400m relay, when running as a school team against regional combinations.
The male 400m rankings has Jason Myers ranked seventh and Travis Bayler 11th following his outstanding effort in finishing sixth at NZSS Schools.
Bayler has another year in the grade while his Whanganui High School team mate Rebecca Baker, following her sensational junior gold medal in the 1500m, makes her maiden entry to the rankings at sixth.
Baker has another two years in the under 18 grade.
Both Baker and Bayler, by their inclusion in the rankings, are immediately gaining benefit of full membership of the sport.
Richmond Wells demonstrated his versatility by ranking fifth in 110m Hurdles, sixth in Pole Vault and sixth in 300m hurdles, where he ranks one place higher than Oliver O'Leary and Jonathan Maples in 11th.
Liam Back, who still has two years in the Under 18 grade, ranks 14th over 800m (1:58.36), eighth in 1500m (4:02.62) and 12th in 3000 metres (8:51.76) when setting Collegiate junior records in each.
He also demonstrated by his competitive record winning key races that there is more to running than setting ranking performances.
Back is also ranked sixth over the steeple barriers.
Whanganui has two ranked athletes in the Under 18 women's steeples with Jane Lennox at eighth and 14-year-old Caitlyn Alabaster at tent, while Sarah Lambert has made her first entry in 3000m at 20th and demonstrated this novice middle distance runner is ready for rapid progress in 2018.
Sophie Redmayne climbed the 300m hurdle rankings to ninth with her fifth place at NZSS (46.63) and Under 16 bronze medal winner Isabel Brabyn with two more years in the grade is six places lower.
Kieran Pere heads the jumpers in third in the Under 18 Triple Jump, while throwers are represented by Lexi Maples fifth in the under 20 shot and fourth in Heptathlon.
Pati Leo enters for the first time in fifth in the Under 18 male discus (45.87), while young Sophie Andrews is 18th in the Under 18 Hammer.
I wish all readers a great Christmas and a prosperous 2018.
I will be back in the New Year as our leading athletes strive for national medals and establish themselves in the new calendar year rankings.