PURE GOLD: A golden time for Whanganui athletes and rugby players at Cooks Gardens.PHOTO/Rob van Dort
Hopefully there is gold at the end of the wonderful rainbow that arched Cooks Gardens yesterday afternoon for both Whanganui athletes and rugby players at the weekend.
The dramatic scene like the one pictured framed the ground shortly before the unbeaten Heartland team's practice in the infield and the weekly athletics club night on the track and the jumping pits.
The ability to hold two events on the same venue says much about the cooperation between athletics and rugby and the versatility of the outstanding venue.
It was wonderful to be at Cooks last Saturday to see the team win the in such emphatic fashion for a home final this weekend. Unfortunately, many athletes will not be at the final as it clashes with the first Regional League meeting in Hastings.
The home final does present problems for the Athletic Club and Cooks Gardens but one gladly made with Saturday's opportunity to retain the Meads Cup in front of home supporters.
On the following Saturday we host the second of the Regional Leagues and in that intervening week the goal posts have to be removed, the hammer cage erected, the turf taken out on the javelin run-ups, the running rail put down and the new high jump covers put in place.
This represents many hours of work from a large group of volunteers. I still hope that we can find funding for state of the art equipment such as a quick to erect Hammer Cage that can lessen the burden from all parties and at the same time make the wonderful venue more versatile.
Returning to Tuesday's athletics there were some really outstanding performances in spite of a deceptively strong head wind on the home straight. Visiting Taranaki 15-year-old Hannah O'Connor ran an outstanding front running 3000 metre in an outstanding 9:47.82 to become the only visiting athlete to win a Collegiate School Open Championship.
Her national class time was more than 10 seconds under the Collegiate record held by Holly van Dalen set when van Dalen took the NZ Schools title. Although O'Connor can't claim the record it will be recorded as a Championship best performance and is a major confidence boost for this outstanding middle distance prospect. O'Connor also won the 800 metres later in the evening (2:22.98) and with other Taranaki athletes are likely to feature in subsequent Club Nights next month as their own track at Inglewood is being resurfaced.
13-year-old Genna Maples continued her excellent early season form with a win in the Triple Jump and an outstanding 200 metres of 26.00 into a 1.7 m/s head wind. This was only 7/100ths outside her best set in winning the North Island Schools in April.
Training partner Tayla Brunger was second in a smart 26.42 seconds and was also hundredths shy of her own personal best. Their combination will be vital to Collegiate's bid to retain the NZ Schools junior 4 x 100 title.
Harry Symes cemented his senior overall title with wins over 200 metres and discus, the latter in a personal best 41.74 metres while Lexi Maples won both the 100 metre hurdles and high jump both with best performances (17.4 and 1,50 metres). Maples will have to wait until next week's javelin event to settle the senior championship.
Christian Conder had another sound outing over 800 metres and again outsprinted the rapidly improving Louis Hogan (High School). Kieran Pere was rewarded for his diligence in training. Pere had a series of 12 metre jumps ending with 12.21 metres to win the Triple Jump. Pere has not exceeded 12 metres before Tuesday's breakthrough performance.
It was pleasing to see a group of new athletes to club night. I was especially impressed with Rebecca Baker and Nikita McDonald and returner Lochie Stedman who again showed promise over 200 metres. We look forward to further progress over the season.
As mentioned earlier the athletes travel to Hastings at the weekend for Round 1 of the Regional League which comes to Cooks Gardens the following Saturday. The league concludes in Wellington on Saturday 19th November. All three meets provide vital early season competition for senior athletes and are vital preparation for school age athletes.
The Hastings meeting is just 35 days from the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships in Auckland.