Athletic insight: Renewed interest boost for cross country champs

Rebecca Baker will start as the favourite in the senior girls event in the secondary schools cross country. PHOTO / STUART MUNRO

RENOWNED basketball coach John Wooden was reputed to have said "sports don't build character, they reveal it".

Cross country running is demanding, but whether taking part improves character is certainly debatable. It is true, however, that it can reveal determination and perseverance and taking part provides an opportunity to demonstrate and build on these traits. At the same time, the aerobic fitness gained can provide a fitness base for all other sports.

There has been a drop in numbers competing at the Whanganui Secondary Schools Championship over recent years. Twenty-five years ago, there were almost as many competing in a junior race as the total number of athletes competing in all recent meetings.

It is therefore encouraging that this year there has been a 15 per cent rise in entries from last year for today's cross country to be held on the Tawhero Golf Course. Wanganui Collegiate School and Whanganui High School provide 66 per cent of the total entry of 180 athletes with 60 athletes each.

The last school cross country to be held at Tawhero was the 1991 New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships when almost 1200 competed on a wet June afternoon. We are delighted that we have been allowed to return to this excellent venue. The main lap is 1500m and includes some undulating terrain mid course and over the final 500m. There is a short 1000m lap which will be used as a first lap in the two 4000m races.

This year, all the girls will run together, starting at 1.30pm and completing two 1500m laps. Runners will wear colour coded bibs front and back to distinguish the three grades (Year 9 in blue, junior red and senior white). The boys also start together and wear the same colour coded bibs, but the seniors and the juniors run 4000m. Organisers hope that the combining of grades will lead to better racing and also provide the experience of larger starts that athletes will encounter in national events.

New Zealand Schools international Liam Back (Wanganui Collegiate) will start as strong favourite, but team-mates Zach Bellamy and the Sinclair brothers (William and Joseph) and Travis Bayler, Connor Hoskin, Connor Munro and Joseph Reid (Whanganui High School) will keep him honest.

Rebecca Baker (High School), who impressed in winning the North Island Schools 1500m and 3000m on the track, will start as favourite in the senior girls with Sarah Lambert, Caitlyn Alabaster (Collegiate) and a member of last year's Whanganui junior cross country relay team Georgina Bryant (Nga Tawa) likely to challenge. Watch also for Ashleigh Alabaster (Collegiate), who as favourite in the junior girls, should be close to the action in the combined race.

In the junior boys there is an injury cloud over pre-race favourite George Lambert (Collegiate) that could open the door for a number of other athletes including Riley Zimmerman (City College), who was in the Whanganui Year 9 relay at last year's New Zealand Secondary Schools.

The Year 9 grade is open only to Year 9 students and without previous year's form this grade is wide open and difficult to predict. Paige Cromarty (Girls College) was a runaway winner of the Girls College event while, in the boys, Nat Kirk (High School), who was successful on the track, starts with the strongest credentials.

Only three athletes will step on to the podium for individual honours while the majority of those running will be competing for team places. City College won the Year 9 team title last year and return with basically the same team hoping to repeat the success at junior level this year. Collegiate have a strong record both locally and nationally in the team events, but on the evidence of last year and the summer, they will be challenged strongly by neighbours Whanganui High School with Nga Tawa mounting a challenge in the girls' grades.

The leading three in each grade gain automatic selection for the regional relay to be run on the day following the New Zealand Schools Cross Country in Taupo (June 17) with the remaining two places being selected from nominations.

The girls race starts at 1.30pm with the boys at 2pm. Starts and finishes are at the hockey turf end of the Tawhero Golf course with good views for spectators from many vantage points around the course.