Transcending sporting codes

CROSS CODES: Internationally ranked speed skater Renee Teers (second left) reveals her running form in the WHS intermediate girls 100m heat at Cooks Gardens yesterday.

Natural athletes transcend sporting codes and usually excel no matter the task at hand.

This was particularly evident at the Whanganui High School Senior Track and Field Championships at Cooks Gardens yesterday.

Shining examples of athletes competing and excelling outside their specialist codes included young Sarya Lower and Renee Teers in the intermediate girls 100m sprint and kayaker Jack Clifton in the boys 100m. Each won their running heats, hopefully impressing the selectors enough to make the WHS team to compete at the Whanganui Secondary Schools Track and Field Championships at Cooks next Wednesday.

Lower is actually a class act in the swimming pool, while Teers is a nationally and internationally ranked speed skater and Clifton a powerhouse kayaker who topped the medal count for the Whanganui squad at the NZ and Oceania Canoe Sprint Championships on Lake Karapiro last month.

Coaches are often taught that running, jumping and throwing form the basis of early development toward any sporting code.

A prime example of cross code excellence was young Paris Munro who qualified to test herself at senior level through the junior WHS championships last week. Munro is likely to compete at the Whanganui Schools in running, jumping and throwing.

In windy, cool conditions at Cooks Gardens the WHS athletes worked through the various track and field disciplines all aiming to make the Whanganui Schools team for next week.

There were of course others who excelled outside their chosen specialist codes, but then there were the usual suspects that shone at their specialist disciplines.

Runners Rebecca Baker, Matt Kleinsmith, Connor Munro and Travis Bayler fall into this category, while young Maysin Katene is another knocking firmly on the door for a spot in the track team.