The lure of scholarships in the United States has attracted many. In the past two years, Finn Johnson, Maggie Jones (High School), James Hercus and Daniel Sinclair (Collegiate) have received such scholarships to add to the 25-plus other Whanganui athletes who received similar scholarships in years past. While lost to New Zealand, they have not been lost to the sport. It is pleasing that medal-winning athletes such as Louise Brabyn, Pascale Bowie (ex-Collegiate) and Travis Bayler and Nat Kirk (ex- High School) have continued competing in New Zealand and we look forward to welcoming Bayler and Kirk on their return home for vacation.
New Zealand 400m hurdle silver medal winner Jonathan Maples is a senior athlete who has returned to the region and is based at Ōhakea. In June Maples won his first New Zealand singlet when selected to compete at the Oceania Championships in Fiji. Although Maples finished one place shy of the podium, he returned from Suva with a personal best over the hurdles backed up by a best 400m split when running in the mixed 4 x 400 relay. Recent training and pre-season tests provide strong indications that this season could build significantly on last year’s progress.
Fiji teammate Juliet McKinlay returned with an under-18 heptathlon medal which included four personal bests over the seven events. McKinlay backed this up with a personal best in the long jump and a place in the 100m hurdle final. A Year 11 Whanganui Collegiate boarder, McKinlay trains at both her home track in Palmerston North and Cooks Gardens and will seek to strengthen her growing athletics CV.
The third Whanganui member of the team to Fiji, race walker Lucas Martin, is studying engineering at Canterbury University. I had assumed that his engineering internship was in Christchurch but was delighted to hear that it is in Whanganui. He has just been awarded his Canterbury University Sports Blues and an additional award for officiating. It is great to have our club captain back for the summer.
We also look forward to welcoming back at Cooks Gardens a group of New Zealand and North Island Schools medal podium athletes. They include Grace Fannin, James McGregor, Hannah Byam, Rosa Meyer, Damian Hodgson, Thomas Gowan, James Olds and Ben Karatau.
As in past years, we expect there will be some new faces making a breakthrough this summer, many of whom demonstrated considerable promise over last summer.
Lulu Dufty was selected for Manawatū/Whanganui Centre for the New Zealand Championships and for Whanganui Secondary Schools for the North Island and showed genuine potential in jumping events at both championships. Samuel Hermann gained similar selection. At the North Island champs, he finished sixth in the senior boys 400m, an event with strong local depth where Whanganui High School sprinters Damian Hodgson and Thomas Gowan finished second and third respectively. Oliver Toohey was unavailable for the North Island event but has very real promise over both 400m and 800m with javelin as a solid back-up event. It will be interesting to see him step down to 200m as he combines track and field with sevens.
I was impressed with Alex Payne last week at parkrun which attracted 120 runners and walkers. Payne looked good in finishing third and the Year 9 Whanganui High School athlete, who finished 9th in the North Island Schools 800m, could well make considerable progress as the season develops.
The opening night for children is on Monday, October 14, at 4.30pm. The senior club night, featuring events for athletes of all ages from Year 7 through to masters, starts at 7pm on Tuesday.
The programme is published on the Athletics Wanganui website.
