Town and country students win

PACE UP FRONT: Grace Godfrey, lane 5, winning her intermediate girls' 200m heat followed by Jordan Hume and Olivia Seymour. PHOTO/STUART MUNRO

ALTHOUGH THE long hot summer gave way to distinctly chilly overhead conditions for Wednesday's Whanganui Secondary Schools Athletic Championships, there was a warmth and efficiency from the hosts, Wanganui High School, who fulfilled their duties splendidly.

While Wanganui Collegiate may have won more than 70 per cent of the titles on offer, there were a number of close battles and worthy champions from the region's schools including some exciting wins by non-metropolitan school athletes.

The chilly and windy conditions did not favour distance and 400m runners but sprinters were able to harness the strong tail wind on the home straight and many reached personal bests albeit wind-aided.

Genna Maples, the overwhelming pre-meet favourite in the junior girls' 100m, was disqualified for a break at the start leaving Sophie Black (Rangitikei College) as the winner with a worthy performance.

Maples made no mistake in the 200m, winning from Collegiate team mate Tayla Brunger, both with truly national class performances (25.85s and 26.68s respectively).

Maples won the long, triple and high jumps and Brunger claimed the 300m and combined in a successful relay win.

In a busy day as meeting manager, it is possible only to gain a few snapshot impressions of the meet and only longer analysis of results reveals the full picture.

The impressive junior middle distance double (800m and 1500m) by Year 10 WHS athlete and hockey player Rebecca Baker was one such snapshot memory.

Baker's 5m 9.95s win in the 1500m was especially good as it followed only an hour after winning the 800m.

Another such memory came in the senior boys' ranks with Cullinane College student Huwyler Rayden's close wins in both the 200m and long jump.

Both events clashed. Rayden came straight back from his narrow victory over the half lap event to snatch a win in the closing stages of the long jump.

In the 200m, he won on the line from 100m winner Luke Foster (Collegiate).

Foster, who had a serious motorbike accident over a year ago at South Beach, has made rapid progress over recent months.

There was only six hundredths of a second separating the top four athletes in the long-anticipated senior final.

Jane Lennox (Wanganui Collegiate) used the meet as preparation for World Schools in Hungary next month.

Lennox is still young enough to run as an intermediate and won all three middle distance events (3000m, 1500m and 800m) in grand style, including a personal best in 800m, only 90 minutes after the 3000m.

Nga Tawa's Jessica Pfefferle continued to show good form in the intermediate throws by winning the discus and javelin double, while Ruapehu College athlete Dylan Te Kura-Bishop was an impressive winner in the junior shotput with an excellent 11.19m performance.

Hayley Artz (Ruapehu College) won her intermediate high jump on a count back and also added the long jump to confirm the promise of this first-year intermediate girls' jumper.

Oliver O'Leary (Collegiate) not only impressed with his performances but also with his workload.

He won the intermediate 200m, 800m, 400m, 100m hurdles and high jump - many in near national class performances.

The meeting ended with the traditional running relays, where Collegiate probably made history by winning all eight contested.

WHS were unfortunate in the senior boys event where the team sadly got left at the start and missed out on what would certainly have been a great contest.

Hopefully they will replay the race at a club night before the season end.

Next week, I will look in greater depth at the results and performances in a preview of the North Island School Championships, to be run in Auckland over the first weekend in April.