Whanganui Chronicle
  • Whanganui Chronicle home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Taranaki
  • National Park
  • Whakapapa
  • Ohakune
  • Raetihi
  • Taihape
  • Marton
  • Feilding
  • Palmerston North

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • New Plymouth
  • Whanganui
  • Palmertson North
  • Levin

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Whanganui Chronicle / Sport

Cooks Gardens all set for nationals

By Alec McNab
Whanganui Chronicle·
20 Nov, 2014 05:23 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article
Harry Symes running at Cooks Gardens. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

Harry Symes running at Cooks Gardens. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Time and tide wait for no man" and certainly the pace has picked up pre-New Zealand Schools Championships, which is emphasising the time aspect.

There are 15 days until the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships at Cooks Gardens and the mass of organisational details grow by the day. The other true aspect concerning time is that it is human nature to leave things until the last minute and this has been true of many aspects concerning the championships.

With only three days left until the close of entries we have now received in excess of 900 entries from 170 schools, but as in the past many of the larger school entries are yet to arrive and these include my own Collegiate entries, which will this year be close to 50 athletes.

We do know that these larger schools are coming, as deposits have been made on accommodation bookings and these larger schools contribute to the fact that there are few, if any, beds left in Wanganui.

After a slow start there has been an increase in the offer of help from volunteers.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The officiating courses run at Sport Wanganui, in conjunction with the weekly club night, started slowly, but there has been a pleasing increase in numbers in the last fortnight.

On Tuesday, we looked at long throws and those attending helped at the hammer throw where the officials outnumbered the competitors.

They were, however, able to witness Sam Donald produce the performance of the night with a personal best throw of 49.05 metres, which moves him up the New Zealand rankings.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

He is closing in on the 50m barrier, with a Collegiate record of 52m also within his grasp, which if achieved could in the process give him a place in the leading six at the actual championships.

Tide will not affect the championships and hopefully the unrelenting wind of the last few weeks will abate by the start of December.

The conditions have been hard for athletes, with Tuesday evening one of the windiest at the track for some time.

The 2000m road runners faced strong winds between Ridgway St and Guyton St, but it did not deter the in-form Geordie Beamish from recording a course record and personal best in 5m 33.42s, one second inside the record he set a month earlier.

Alice Bird was the leading girl, finishing in fifth position and she too took four seconds off her best, as did all seven leading runners (Jamie Gillespie, Sam Medlicott, Louis Hogan, Thomas Conder and Finn Cleary).

Max Attwell continued to impress, setting a personal best in the 300m of 35.60s, and ran well against the head wind to win the 60m sprint.

In both events Year 11 student Harry Symes challenged strongly, highlighting his promise as a sprinter.

Over distance events, Josh Ledger ran an excellent even-paced 600m in which he had to face the head wind on two of the three straights, he handed a rare defeat to Geordie Beamish (1m 24.11s to 1m 27.30s).

Although in Beamish's defence, the 600m was only 15 minutes after the aforementioned road race.

Eleven year old Genna Maples continued her excellent form in beating older, well performed athletes, including hurdler Myah Jex-Blake and her older sister, Lexi, over 60m. Genna is certainly a name to note for the future.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

A large group of Wanganui athletes will travel to Wellington tomorrow for the final Regional League meeting.

Most will use the event as a dress rehearsal for the Schools' Championships a fortnight later.

Unfortunately, the weather forecast is not good at a time when athletes need the positive confirmation that they are coming into form.

Save
    Share this article

Latest from Sport

Sport

Rugby: Whanganui women triumph with six tries

Sport

Rugby: Young guns shine in high-scoring clash against Classics

Whanganui Chronicle

Coaching guru moves south to take role at Cricket Whanganui


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Sport

Rugby: Whanganui women triumph with six tries
Sport

Rugby: Whanganui women triumph with six tries

The Whanganui team won 34-22 against King Country in a preseason match.

28 Jul 05:00 PM
Rugby: Young guns shine in high-scoring clash against Classics
Sport

Rugby: Young guns shine in high-scoring clash against Classics

28 Jul 05:00 PM
Coaching guru moves south to take role at Cricket Whanganui
Whanganui Chronicle

Coaching guru moves south to take role at Cricket Whanganui

20 Jul 05:00 PM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Whanganui Chronicle e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Whanganui Chronicle
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP