Whanganui athletes in record-breaking form at North Island champs on home turf

Tayla Brunger is a Whanganui athlete coming of age with several outstanding performances at the North Island Secondary Schools champs at Cooks Gardens at the weekend. PHOTO/Stuart Munro

Whanganui athletes were in record breaking form at their home North Island Secondary Schools Championships over the weekend at Cooks Gardens.

The team produced a best ever return for the region with 33 podium places.
Genna Maples (Collegiate) with three titles in the Intermediate Girls grade and a share of the 4x100m title headed the list, closely followed by Rebecca Baker (Whanganui High School) with two titles and Tayla Brunger (Collegiate) with a title in the 400m, a second in the 200m and a share of two relay titles.

Brunger not only consolidated her place at the top of the New Zealand under 18 rankings in the 400m stopping the clock in 56.15 seconds, but in the process set a North Island Schools Intermediate record which also sliced over a tenth of a second of her own Wanganui Collegiate record.

Brunger set a personal best in finishing second to her team mate Genna Maples over 200m (25.48), then combined with Emma Osborne, Ana Brabyn and Maples to win the Intermediate Girls 4x100m and at the end of the weekend ran the lead of leg of the winning Senior 4x400m relay when she combined with Collegiate team mates Sophie Redmayne, Grace Godfrey and Emma Osborne with a 3:55.11 performance that took over a second off the Wanganui Collegiate School record.

Rebecca Baker, with her wins at Intermediate Girls in the 1500m and 3000m, demonstrated that she is a middle distance runner with outstanding potential. Her 1500m time of 4:33.75 was not only a big personal best, but moved her from sixth to third on the New Zealand under 18 rankings.

Baker's 10:12.56 in the 3000m was another massive personal best after a brave front-running performance and as a relative novice over the distance she moves to fifth in the national rankings.

Intermediate Girls was the strongest grade for Whanganui with seven of Whanganui's 13 titles won in the grade and a further five other podium places resulting in total of 12 places of the 33 gained in the six grades by Whanganui athletes.

In two of the events, 200m and 400m, Whanganui finished with first and second places.
Maples made a massive contribution to the success in the grade ending a hugely successful season on her home track with three individual gold medals and producing an outstanding anchor leg in the 4x100m to bring her team gold by three one hundredths of a second.

In the 100m Maples faced a big head wind of 4.1 metres per second and thus her winning time of 12.78 was well shy of her best. She faced a lighter head wind in the 200m and her winning time of 25.11 was a legal personal best and consolidated her place at the top of the New Zealand under 18 rankings.

Interestingly Brunger's 25.48 second placed personal best leaves her .01 behind the second ranked New Zealander. Maples was more fortunate in the long Jump with a near perfect tail wind for record and ranking purposes in the last jump where she equalled her personal best of 5.64m to leave her second in the New Zealand rankings, only 2 centimetres behind the event leader.

Other Whanganui successes in the grade came from Sophie Andrews (WHS) who set a big personal best of 12.72 metres in the Shot. Andrews was also 4th in Hammer and 5th in Discus, a just reward for her hard work in the circle throughout the summer.

Isabel Brabyn (Collegiate), who has had patchy form this term, was back to her best finishing third in the 300m Hurdles. Ashleigh Alabaster, who had finished seventh in the 3000m on the Saturday, finished third in the inaugural Intermediate Steeples on Sunday to complete a successful weekend for the local Intermediate Girls.

Grace Godfrey (Collegiate), who has had a season plagued with injury, won the Senior Girls 400m and although her time of 58.78 was well below her best it was a testament to her diligence in rehabilitation.

Jonathan Maples won his first major title over 300m hurdles coming home well after a near disaster at the first hurdle. His WHS team mate Connor Munro finished third across the line, but will receive the second place certificate as former Whanganui athlete Richmond Wells was an unattached athlete. Connor's sister Paris (WHS) went one better winning the 70m hurdles with her team mate Cassie Glentworth in second place, both excellent and encouraging performances.

Ana Brabyn (Collegiate) won the junior 800m and backed this up with a third in the 1500 metres and a relay gold in the 4x100m Intermediate Girls.