Round the Lake Relay

CHANGEOVER: Tayla Brugner (left) hands over to Sophie McCarthy after a fast first lap to set up a podium finish for the Wanganui Collegiate Year 9 girls at the Round the Lake Relay on Monday.

Virginia Lake is a magnificent park even on a squally early spring day.

On Monday over 450 runners from 26 lower North Island Schools battled the strong winds and showers to complete the 35th edition of the annual Round the Lake Relay. Few if any of the 35 previous races at the lake have been held in worse conditions (on the two occasions it was wetter the event was transferred to the host school, Wanganui Collegiate).

Times have changed but the magnificent venue has not. In the early years before lengthy health and safety documentation the council employed their own workforce who regularly helped with set up and on one year even suggested and erected scaffolding as a finishing gantry.

The enthusiasm of the young runners also has not changed and with an average of 500 runners competing the Lake has been circumnavigated by about 17,000 runners and although many have run up to five times in their school career it would be safe to say that thousands of school age runners have experienced running around one of Whanganui's icons.

One major change made two years ago was changing the start to the Tainui statue. This eliminated traffic management issues as the main highway is not used at any time. The first leg is now 180 metres longer than the other laps.

The fastest lap prize on the first leg of the senior runners is timed at the Tainui statue but although the same distance as in the past runners miss the long fast straight on the highway. This has been replaced by turns on the track close to the changeover zone. This along with the windy conditions highlights the impressive record run of Hannah O'Connor (Sacred Heart New Plymouth) in equalling Holly van Dalen's 2006 record (6:38).

The impressive run was further highlighted by the comparison with the boy's time. The boys run almost 300 metres longer for each lap. New Zealand Schools International Angus White (New Plymouth Boys High School) also ran 6 :38 over the longer course. Year 11 O'Connor has two further opportunities to gain sole possession of the record.

As mentioned in yesterday's Chronicle winning teams came from different regions. Taranaki in the shape of Hawera Intermediate gained the Intermediate Girls region and New Plymouth Boys High School the Senior Boys. Napier Girl High School from Hawkes Bay provided the Senior Girls winning team.

Wellington provided the Year 9 boys (Wellington College), the Intermediate Boys schools, (Scots College), the Year 9 Girls Wellington Girls College, the Junior A Girls Wellington East Girls College, the Junior B and A Boys Wellington College. Wanganui's sole winner was the Junior B Girls won by hosts Wanganui Collegiate School.

It is interesting to note that New Plymouth Girls actually crossed the line first in the Junior A Girls but as they had a late injury one runner had to run twice and were ineligible - nevertheless a most impressive performance.

Wanganui Collegiate performed well in finishing second in the senior girls with solid runs from Jane Lennox, Grace Godfrey, Alice Bird and an excellent anchor leg from Megan Mackay.

The New Zealand School winning under 16 Collegiate Team was struck by illness and did well to finish third displaying depth in the grade by winning the aforementioned Junior B Grade.

Wanganui Intermediate gained a very creditable second in the Intermediate Schools Girls grade ahead of St Anne's School and St Georges, Wanganui Intermediate backed up the second in the girls with a third in the boy's grade. The other Whanganui team on the podium was the Collegiate Year 9 girls team.

Tayla Brunger ran a solid first lap handing on to Sophie McCarthy. Sarah Matthews and Emma Osborne who missed New Zealand Schools produced a creditable third place.

As in the past the race provides a great transition to the track season ahead with a great team event in an exhilarating environment. There were a number of runners from all schools in this category.

I was particularly impressed with the form of North Island 800 metre finalist Charlie Waddy (Collegiate) who showed new strength over the longer distance gaining two places in the second leg to place his team in second at the half way stage (they finished 6th) His performance like many other bodes well for the summer. I can't wait.