Whanganui athletics: Students shine at New Zealand Secondary Schools Athletics Championships

Hannah Byam celebrating her 10th Parkrun, following her success at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Athletics Championships.

Success at championships is often judged by the medals won by teams or athletes. Only three can win a medal, but more than those on the podium can claim success and satisfaction.

Last week I reflected on the five Whanganui individual medals and two team medals won at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Athletics Championships which, although modest in comparison to some years, was still meritorious in a championships contested by 1100 athletes from 201 schools.

This week, I will look at athletes who did not step on to the podium but reached a final or set new personal best performances.

Hannah Byam (Whanganui Collegiate) still has a year left as a junior athlete and took fourth place in the 2000 metre junior steeplechase. In March, Byam took the silver medal at the inaugural Athletics New Zealand Under-16 Championships in a small field.

The 12 starters in Christchurch reflected the growth in the event. All the competitors struggled in the strong wind at the new Ngā Puna Wai track. Byam stayed in contact with the leading group but had to settle for fourth, some four seconds shy of bronze but a comfortable 10 seconds better than fifth.

Grace Fannin (Whanganui Girls College) had an outstanding debut in Christchurch in the 300m hurdles, an event she only took up in October.

Fannin ran an outstanding personal best in her heat to qualify as one of two automatic places in the final, battling a gale-force head wind in the run for home and edging out Juliet McKinlay (Collegiate), who was one of two qualifiers by time.

Isla Jones (Whanganui High School) was the other with a personal best, leaving three Whanganui athletes in the final.

McKinlay finished fourth, Fannin fifth and Jones seventh.

Fanin also ran a personal best in the opening round of the 400m and just missed out on the final, finishing ninth overall in the semis. Fannin can look back on an outstanding first championships.

The importance of offering hurdles at club nights was further highlighted by the personal bests set in 300m hurdles by Whanganui High School athletes Damian Hodgson (40.66s in the qualifying round and eighth in the final, when he fell but did a forward roll to continue to finish), Zak Papworth (ninth) and James McGregor (10th, junior boys).

Sprinters enjoyed the strong tailwinds and a track that was configured to hold sprints finishing on both straights to take full wind advantage.

Not surprisingly, a whole group of sprinters set bests including Auguz Thongskul (junior long jump bronze medal), Justin Falconer, Vincent Walters (Whanganui High school) and Filipe Bayly (Collegiate).

In Bayly’s case, his round one run was a best by 0.6 of a second (11.55s) with a wind just over the allowable level at 2.4 metres per second compared to his quarter-final, when he had a 7m/s wind to record 11.38s. In the 200 metres, Thongskul, Justin Falconer, Vincent Walters, Damian Hodgson, James MacGregor and Zac Papworth all set personal bests.

The high school sprinters combined to gain a highly creditable fifth in the 4x100 metres. The team was Damian Hodgson, Thomas Gowan Zak Papworth and Vincent Walters, setting a time of 45.45s. Again, relays provided a further opportunity for the sprinters, who also finished seventh in the 4x400 relay.

Team member Thomas Gowan had run personal bests in both round one and the semifinal of the 400 metres (52.73s and 52.14s respectively) to finish tantalisingly one place shy of the final. Samuel Hermann (Collegiate) - also set a personal best in round one.

Both athletes can look forward to close battles in the second half of the season.

Year 9 athletes in a championships with only two grades often have to run against athletes up to two years older.

David Sinclair ran an outstanding 1500m 4m 20.40s to record the fastest-ever time by a Whanganui Collegiate Year 9 over the distance, beating his previous best by four seconds.

Sinclair missed the final by one place in possibly the fastest-ever junior boy non-qualifier.

Year 9 teammate Tilly Darke set a personal best over 800m and although missing the final, gained considerable consolation with her 10th place in the road race and sixth in the junior girls 4x400 race.

Jumpers Lulu Dufty, Annabelle Brown (High School) and Minseok Kim (Collegiate) all set personal bests in triple jump and will have gained from the experience.

The biggest personal best of the weekend came from Toby Gil, close to the tail of the junior 3000m, who took 30 seconds off his best and last Saturday took a minute off his Parkrun.

I wish all readers a wonderful Christmas and a prosperous New Year. Insight will return in early January.