City set to host three major events

MULTI TALENTED: Max Attwell returns to Wanganui to compete in the decathlon at the Athletics New Zealand Combined Events Championships at Cooks Gardens in February.PHOTO/ROB VAN DORT 120815WCRVDMAX-ATTWELL

ALTHOUGH the cold wet days worsened by the wind-chill factor and the snow on the Desert Road may suggest otherwise, summer is just around the corner.

I am reminded of the arrival of summer every year with a raft of planning meetings for the season ahead during August and it comes as something of a shock that the first club night is only eight weeks away. This will herald a busy and exciting season for Wanganui athletes.

Cooks Gardens, arguably the best competition/training track and field venue in New Zealand, will see competitive action on over 50 occasions through the summer. These include the weekly club nights (senior and secondary schools on Tuesdays, children's on Mondays), almost all our local school championships culminating in regional championships for intermediate schools in November and secondary schools in March. These meetings have a vibrancy and involve hundreds of local and district children emphasising the importance of the venue and value for ratepayers.

The exciting news is that Athletics Wanganui and Cooks Gardens will host three major events over the summer. The first is early in the season with the return of the Central Regional league on Saturday, November 7. This brings almost 400 athletes from throughout the lower North Island to Wanganui to compete in the second of the three completion series.

Although very early in the season, it is only four weeks before the major New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships to be held in Timaru. It is a good early season event for senior athletes but a vital event for athletes preparing for the NZ Schools Championships. At the start of the NCEA exam season a home venue is welcomed by local athletes as it not only avoids the cost of travel but minimises the loss of study time.

The Cooks Classic returns to the city on Tuesday, January 19. This is also part of a series of meets starting with the Potts Classic in Hastings on Saturday, January 16, and ending with the Capital Classic in Wellington on Friday, January 22. Also linked to the series is the popular "jumps to Music" in Hawera on the preceding Thursday evening (January 14). Considerable work has been done on revamping the classics with an early announcement of programmes. We have advertised a clear progression of events for athletes in an attempt to raise the number of competitors at each meeting and also to encourage more touring groups similar to the Young Olympian Tour of recent years.

The Cooks Classic will again feature the mile and include at least two popular handicap events and quality jumps fields to link with the aforementioned Hawera event.

Following the success of the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships last December Athletics Wanganui has been awarded the Athletics New Zealand Combined Events Championships over the weekend February 20/21. This will bring the leading New Zealand decathletes and heptathletes to Cooks Gardens.

We aim to bring spectators close to the action as New Zealand's leading combined event specialists go about their demanding business over two days of competition. Among the starters will be last year's New Zealand Under 20 gold medallist and former Wanganui athlete Max Attwell competing in his first senior decathlon. Attwell, who left Wanganui Collegiate School in December, is now based in Christchurch and coached by Terry Lomax.

Attwell is ranked second in the Under-20 New Zealand over the event behind New Zealand representative at the World Universities, Aaron Booth. Attwell had a second successful decathlon at the Arcadia Meeting in California in April.

Lomax tells me he is training well and ready to make the step up to the senior ranks and to build on his exciting athletic career which only really started as a Year 12 student.

Locally based athletes will also welcome this home event.

These could include promising younger athletes such as Lexi Maples who could compete in her debut heptathlon and 400m specialist Harry Symes, who has displayed versatility with a number of good performances in the many disciplines of decathlon.

There is much to look forward to in the months ahead as Cooks Gardens becomes one of the major track and field venues in the country.

Bring on the warmth of summer.