Depth of performances impresses

WINNERS ARE GRINNERS: The victorious Harvey team (from left) Dan McLeod, Tate Harte, Jamie Gillespie and Louis Hogan. PHOTO/ROB VAN DORTIMG_9932

A DAY of sunshine, especially after a spell of rain, lifts the spirit. This was evident on Friday at the Wanganui Collegiate Cross Country Championships.

The sun which was welcomed by officials and spectators around the Collegiate School Golf Course circuit also brought with it a raft of good performances over the course, which was used for the 2005 New Zealand Secondary Schools Cross Country. While titles went with the form book it was the improved depth of performance that impressed.

Christian Conder continued his rich vein of good form by winning the senior title comfortably with a 6000m time just under 19 minutes. This was faster than the winner in 2005 on the same course, however, Conder was blessed with much better conditions but nevertheless should be encouraged by his performance.

Training partner Louis Hogan was second with Jamie Gillespie third, reversing the minor placings at Waiouru eight days earlier.

It is clear that if the latter two can slightly narrow the gap to Conder they will be a competitive three to score team at New Zealand Schools in Dunedin in just over two weeks. Hogan and Gillespie gained some consolation by taking the team medal for Harvey House when they were joined by Dan McLeod (4th) and Tate Harte (7th).

The intermediate boys' race also went to the favourite with Luke Gemmell winning by a wide margin (23 seconds). Gemmell will add depth to the Collegiate School senior team in Dunedin while in the senior girls Alice Bird retained her title with a 36-second win over team captain Sophie Collins and training partner Jazmin Phillips.

It is likely that the junior girls' winner Jane Lennox will join the competitive senior team in Dunedin. Lennox ran the second fastest time of the day over the same 3000m course and has the background to handle the additional kilometres later in the month and be part of a very competitive senior team.

Ben Kelt was a clear winner in the junior boys and has made the late decision to make the long journey south to Dunedin in light of his performance.

It is clear that Collegiate will field a strong Year 9 girls team later in the month following their success in Waiouru at Wanganui Schools and by the evidence of the WCS Championship performances last week.

On Friday they competed as part of the junior championships and performed well against girls who a year earlier had returned from NZ Schools as silver medal winners in the six to score event. The Year 9s were led home by Caitlyn Alabaster in second place in the junior race (third fastest performance of the day). Alabaster had finished second to the impressive Rebecca Baker (WHS) at Waiouru and was followed by Sophie Redmayne (3rd), Libby Abbott (6th), Sophie Dinwiddie (11th), Anna Robbie (12th) and Miaa Brandon (13th) in the combined race. Grey House won both the teams and standards competition.

The team races provide team racing for the leading runners while the standards competition is for all. The standards are graded from 6 points down to 1 point based on standards times established over 25 years ago. The top runners including many of the team runners pick up the 6 points on offer while at the lower ends the weaker runners who are prepared to work will score at least 1 point. There were only a very small group who failed to gain a point, the lowest for some years, and encouragingly in the girls none of the girls finished with less than 2 points.

All may have been helped by the weather but as the course is the same each year these results are a useful barometer on both the fitness of those running and their attitude. I find such statistics both interesting and useful.

Comparisons with performances over a quarter of a century does show a decline and where the 3 point standard currently lies was a one point in the older 3, 2, 1 standard system when most would have gained the 1.

The six point scale was created a decade ago to encourage the growing number who failed to score the previous one point standard. After a decade of weaker performances the slide had plateaued over the last three or four years with a very definite rise in performance this year.