WHANGANUI FLAVOUR: Lexi Maples and former Wangani Collegiate athlete Max Attwell celebrate success on the podium in Dunedin at the weekend.
Lexi Maples won her first individual New Zealand medal at the weekend when she finished second in the under 20 Heptathlon at the Caledonian Ground in Dunedin at the weekend.
Throughout the weekend she gained inspiration and was helped by former Wanganui Collegiate decathlete Max Attwell who took his first senior men's Decathlon title at the same venue. Attwell may have lacked opposition as he was the sole athlete in the grade (he did compete in many events with both the under 20 and under 18 athletes in the same event). It was clear from the outset that Attwell meant business with a personal best 100 metres. He did not disappoint ending with a big personal best point tally over the two days (6662 points)
Maples hopes to follow in the Attwell footsteps. Attwell took a silver medal in his first decathlon in Auckland in 2014 gaining him a place in the New Zealand Team to the Oceania Championships to Raratonga where he took the gold medal. Attwell distinguished himself at his final New Zealand Schools at Cooks Gardens when he won the 300 metre hurdles and ran in both the winning Collegiate relay teams on his home track.
A year later in 2015 Attwell improved taking gold in the under 20 Decathlon in Hamilton with a new best total and although by then Christchurch based made his final appearance in the green singlet of Manawatu/Whanganui. At the end of the New Zealand season Attwell toured in California and finished sixth in the prestigious Arcadia Decathlon.
Last year Attwell returned to Cooks Gardens this time wearing the red of Canterbury to take bronze in his maiden senior national decathlon. He scored 6219 which he improved on at the Australian Championships (6510 for 8th). At the weekend in difficult conditions he again bettered his performance to record 6662 points.
Maples first Heptathlon was in Wanganui last year only a fortnight after coming out of a moon boot. She finished a creditable 8th but more importantly developed a passion for the event. Maples in spite of a niggling hamstring injury in November has made solid progress across all disciplines including finishing 5th at New Zealand Schools in the Shot and also ran in the fourth place 4 x 400 team.
At the weekend in winning the silver medal Maples improved her total by over 200 points but significantly as she has moved up a grade to the under 20 grade where the weight of both javelin and shot increases and also the height of the hurdles. Her total of 3986 also set a Wanganui Collegiate record and she would like to follow in the Attwell footsteps when he was in the under 20 grade by changing the colour of her under 20 medal from silver to gold.
The strong gusty wind did not help combined eventers in Dunedin and although many events were wind aided. The gusty and changeable nature of the wind was of little assistance especially in hurdles, where athletes encountered a cross wind, and in long jump where accuracy in run up became problematical. It was in the 800 metres, the final heptathlon event, that athletes were most effected as they battled the head wind in the home straight. Maples had a target of 2 minutes 35.50 to hit the 4000 points for automatic qualification for the Arcadia Meeting in California in April. She was a second shy of this time and fell a tantalisingly 14 points short of the necessary 4,000 points. She is likely to qualify and again follow Attwell's footsteps by the strength of her personal best performances across the seven disciplines.
The first night of the Manawatu/Wanganui Centre Championships were held in perfect conditions on Tuesday. We await full results but can confirm that Harry Symes is in good form narrowly losing to the inform Palmerston North Sprinters Zac Topping in the 100 metres and to Quin Hartley in the 400 metres, the latter in an impressive 49.48 seconds.
Keiran Pere jumped 13 metres for the first time and Emma Osborne was only three one hundredths from completing the one lap in under 60 seconds (1:00.03).
Cooks Gardens moves into the School Championship month. Cullinane competed on Tuesday with at least three school records broken. Whanganui Girls College compete on Thursday with Whanganui High School next Wednesday. Wanganui Collegiate have their all action Inter House Team Match on Saturday starting at 5pm. The Whanganui Schools Championships are scheduled for Wednesday, March 15 which is the qualifying meet for the North Island Schools in early April.