Maples trained well and was able to schedule five races over a fortnight at three meetings in England and Belgium.
First up was the Loughborough International, six days after his arrival in the United Kingdom.
Maples phoned me excited about the outstanding presentation of the meet but also disappointed by his results. After 250m in his 400m, he was leading, enthusiastically urged on by the commentator, when lactic and jet lag combined. He fell back to fifth, well below his personal best, but, nevertheless, the 48.84s is his fifth-best recorded time.
He confessed to nearly pulling out of the 400m hurdles two hours later but wisely ran. His 54.70s was more than two seconds below his best but the experience proved valuable.
Five days later, he ran at the Open Trudo Club Meeting at Sint-Truiden in Brussels, where he won the 100m with a personal best 10.78s, an event in which he was made hugely welcome.
The next day, he competed at the IFAM World Bronze Meet at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels. He finished 5th in Heat 3 and was 10th of the more than 50 entrants, recording 47.57s, his equal second-best over the one lap.
On the following day, he ran 52.77s over the 400m hurdles (his fourth-best time).
Maples learned much from the experience and should be pleased with the results in such a short tour and can now enjoy the planned overseas holiday experience. He has already said he wants to undertake a longer athletics tour in the future.
Closer to home, the Whanganui Harrier Club retained the women’s section at the traditional Hughes Memorial in Hāwera.
The Whanganui women were helped by wins for Sally Gibbs in the W60 grade and a first and second respectively by Faith McGregor and Paula Conder in the W50. Other Whanganui winners were George McGregor in the under-14 boys and Vera Lambert in the under-10 girls.
On the same day, 93 braved the chilly, damp conditions at the weekly parkrun.
Friday saw probably the largest Whanganui cross-country event, with the annual Whanganui Collegiate School Championships having a large participation of more than 80% of the school roll.
Events were held a little earlier on the day than usual to accommodate the funeral of former housemaster and Whanganui Collegiate teacher Peter Preston, who died on May 16.
Preston would have preferred a quiet funeral but, such was the respect for him, that every seat in the chapel was filled with a large overflow in the nearby Gilligan House Memorial Room and many more watching the live stream.
Preston was an outstanding teacher, housemaster and mentor. As a housemaster, his Hadfield House won 12 consecutive cross-country house events. He believed that while cross-country did not build character, it certainly revealed it. He supported his students in all their activities. He wrote wonderful cards to teams I took to New Zealand cross-country events, often quoting “In cross-country there are no half times, no timeout, no substitutions.” He always said there was no place to hide on the cross-country course.
Hadfield did not win on Friday but did finish second to Grey House in both the teams and standards sections. Hadfield, however, provided both the senior boy champion, Hamish Cranstone, and senior girl champion, Hannah Byam, who had opted to run up a grade, and junior girl champion Sophie Dunlop.
All demonstrated a determination that would have impressed Preston.
Runners from all schools have a chance today (Thursday) to reveal their character at the Annual Inter Schools.
