TRAINING BUDDIES: Genna Maples heads team mate Tayla Brunger in the 200 metres at the Wanganui Regional Meeting. Maples won with Brunger second. PHOTO/Jo Murray
The Schools Year 9 and 10 Athletic League run in conjunction with three November club nights concluded last week has proven a resounding success.
The team competition will hopefully grow in the new school year and it is hoped that others will join Whanganui High School and Wanganui Collegiate and reap the benefits that come from the competition.
Wanganui Collegiate Year 9 girls were runaway winners of the girls section while Whanganui High School Year 10 Boys won two of the three meetings and although Collegiate won the last, High School's two wins was enough to win the League.
"Mighty Oaks from little acorns grow", and it is hoped that the League will be the catalyst to growth in the sport and provide impetus to the local club scene dominated for so long by Wanganui Collegiate athletes. The benefits are already evident with three of the six strong Whanganui High School team travelling to Auckland this weekend coming from the team competition.
Rebecca Baker starts in both the 800 metres and 1500 metres and looks set to further improve on her impressive recent form. Travis Bayler will start in the 200 and 800 metres in the Junior Boys. Bayler has impressed with his rate of improvement and the trip north should provide more invaluable experience for this promising young athlete.
Sophie Andrews is the third junior athletes who competes in Shot, Javelin and Hammer. Andrews will have the company Year 9 Wanganui Collegiate Thrower Phoebe Collier both won medals at the same North Island Championships.
The three junior Whanganui High School athletes will be accompanied by three in the senior ranks Matt Kleinsmith, Joseph Redpath and Louis Hogan. Hogan who was featured in last week's article who won in Wellington over 3000 metres (reported as coming second, but has had the result corrected) has made rapid improvement over the last month.
Wanganui Collegiate with 49 athletes will have the second largest team at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships.
Twenty-one of the Collegiate team are in Year 9 and 10 which bodes well for the future. They will be fielding two teams in both the junior girls 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 relay. This will give invaluable experience at this level for a group of promising Year 9 Girls. Their target is to better the 4 x 100 B team of a decade ago that finished 6th in the Final won by a team.
Genna Maples has won all her 100 metre and 200 metre races this season and is very high in the rankings in both. She is also ranked in Long Jump and Triple Jump. It needs to be noted that Maples is still only 13-years-old and competes against athletes two years older.
Maples' training partner Tayla Brunger will run in the 400 metres and her Wellington Regional form suggests that she will give a good account of herself. Brunger like Maples will be up against older athletes. The two are part of the strong relay combinations.
Jane Lennox will be able to benefit from having the younger Caitlyn Alabaster alongside in the Steeplechase. The juniors and seniors will run in a combined field. It is the first year of the junior grade and numbers of steeplechasers has risen as a result of this. Both athletes on rankings should be among the leading group in their respective grades. Both also run in the Road Races six hours prior to the Steeples.
Three young Collegiate athletes run in the other new event the 300 metres Hurdles junior girls. Isabel Brabyn and Georgia Matson from Year 9 should gain valuable experience.
They are joined by Sophie Redmayne who goes into the event ranked 5th but within range of the current third ranked athlete.
Sprinter Harry Symes has recovered well and looks to be back in top form. He starts in the 200 metres where he can threaten Daniel Natusch's eleven-year-old school record. Symes is a vital part of the relay programme and he will be encouraged by the excellent recent form of team mate Luke Foster who has opted to run in just the 100 metres.
Lexi Maples has made huge advances in the Shot and could further improve on her 13.11 mete effort and if she does will be amongst the leading eight athletes in the Final. Maples also starts in the Hammer and the 4 x 400 metres and is reserve for the strong 4 x 100 quartet of Sophie Ensor, Jordan Hume, Olivia Seymour and Grace Godfrey who would love to repeat their junior gold medal performance of last year.
Christian Conder starts in both the 3000metres and Steeplechase. He won bronze in the latter and this year's event should bring down the curtain on an illustrious school career.