Cross-country meet runs like dream

FLAT TRACK: Whanganui athlete Jane Lennox finished a creditable 34th and was fifth Kiwi home on an unsuitable flat course at the ISF World Schools Cross-country Championships in Budapest at the weekend.PHOTO/RHYS TAUCHER, SACRED HEART AUCKLAND COACH

THE ISF (International Sports Federation) has a mission to promote sport, fair play and international friendship.

The ISF World Cross Country event achieved all aims in a superbly-run event in Budapest, Hungary at the weekend.

Not only was the meeting conducted to the highest standard but also the associated events that are part of the five-day package that all countries have to participate in.

This includes the outstanding opening and closing ceremonies but also the cultural evening when all 24 countries participating have to set up a stall and perform on stage.

The organisers also arrange an extensive tour on the day between the main race and the friendship relay where athletes from all countries are mixed in teams of 19 runners.

The New Zealand and Australian team in addition had a quiet commemoration at 7am on Anzac Day.

We reflected that, like the troops of 1915, the athletes had set out on an adventure but with the huge difference that all our runners will return together to New Zealand and Australia.

There was an additional poignancy that we stood on the steps of our hotel in a country that only shook away from communist control 26 years ago.

The best performed of the four New Zealand groups competing was the Sacred Heart Auckland silver medal in the school team event.

The team was headed by James Uhlenberg in fifth place (New Zealand's best individual placing).

The team demonstrated commendable depth with all six runners home by 24th in the field of 125 athletes from 21 countries.

They will be a hard combination to beat at New Zealand Schools in Rotorua in June.

St Cuthberts (Auckland), who narrowly won the right to compete for New Zealand from Wanganui Collegiate, finished a highly creditable eighth in a field of schools from 24 entries.

The very young team have an exciting future with some eligible to compete at the next World Cross Country championships in Paris in 2018.

In the selected team race the New Zealand Boys finished sixth of the 12 countries competing, with Mitchell Small (Christchurch) our leading competitor in 12th in what proved to be a strong field.

Christian Conder (Wanganui Collegiate) struggled, never really recovering from an injury suffered in travel. He had five days without running which dented his confidence.

He did, however, finish in the top half of the field and captained the team well and carried the flag at the closing ceremony.

The New Zealand girls finished one place higher than the boys in fifth position.

Young Hannah O'Connor, who has had a stellar track season, was first home in sixth place.

Throughout the race this gritty young Taranaki athlete challenged for the medal. O'Connor has an exciting future.

Our own Jane Lennox (Wanganui Collegiate) achieved her immediate goal of finishing in the top half of the field, reaching this goal finishing in 34th.

She was the fifth New Zealander, only missing the scoring four by less than a second after an outstanding second lap.

The flat course on Margaret Island on the Danube in the middle of Budapest did not suit Lennox who prefers the type of hills she encountered in the selection race back in June at NZSS in Dunedin.

However, she demonstrated in that second lap that she is making huge progress over faster, flatter courses.

The touring experience should have motivated this outstanding distance runner.

It was good to hear from Whanganui that Alice Bird is coming back into form, producing the fastest Collegiate time in the Anzac Relays when her team finished second to Palmerston North on Anzac Day.

School runners are now in the build up to NZ Schools in Rotorua on June 20. I look forward to returning in mid-May as they prepare for that challenge.