Up-and-coming stars have nationals in sights

MULTI-TALENTED: Leading Collegiate football goal scorer Lexi Maples also found time to work on her track and field conditioning through winter. PHOTO/ROB VAN DORT 300915WCSUPLEXIMAPLES

It is now less than a week until the start of the new season and I will, over the next few weeks, be looking at athletes who might make a national breakthrough.

Lexi Maples, who as leading goal scorer through winter played a big role in the success of the Wanganui Collegiate football team, also found time to work on additional conditioning for the track this summer.

Now that the football season is over, she is a regular visitor to Cooks Gardens and training would suggest that she is ready for a major breakthrough, building on the gains at the end of last season.

Although she narrowly missed making the New Zealand 400m Youth final in Wellington in March at North Island, she made the 200m and 400m Intermediate girls finals and was part of a successful relay team.

Maples has gained in strength, and with these gains will come a growing self-confidence. As a 15-year-old, it is a big step up moving into the senior ranks at New Zealand Schools, but as a member of the Collegiate School Relay squad she has the relay culture to support her and has two other events to fall back on as she moves into senior ranks.

Maples has also been working on other events and will perhaps use the New Zealand Heptahlon to be held here in Wanganui in February as her combined events debut.

Grace Godfrey, like Maples, was fully involved in winter team sport and was a member of the Wanganui Collegiate School hockey team. She plays representative hockey for her age group team. Like Maples, she ran in the North Island 400m Intermediate Girls, finishing 5th, and also made the New Zealand Youth (under-18) 400m when only 14.

Unlike Maples, as a Year 10 student she is still young enough to run as a junior at New Zealand Secondary Schools in Timaru this December. A sound training session last week, which included a 43.8 second 300m run in windy conditions, would suggest she can run under 60 seconds for her specialist 400m and make that national breakthrough.

Roimata Hipango made that breakthrough at the end of last season when she won the North Island Triple Jump, which saw her make a significant entry in the New Zealand rankings, second in the Youth Rankings, third in the Under-20 and seventh in the open division.

Hipango has made major gains in terms of conditioning and as a key member of the sprint relay team has had every incentive to work on her speed. Basic conditioning and speed are vital aspects of the demanding event and should mean she will overcome her usual slow start to the season. Sound performances at the winter meet in Palmerston North at the end of last month, which included solid recorded performances in long and triple jump, bode well. The series of jumps included a marginal no jump very close to her personal best. The early season competitions will be vital as she and her teammates prepare for New Zealand Schools, which is less than 10 weeks away.

More established competitors such as top-ranked Youth 400m runner Harry Symes and 1500m Youth medal winner Christian Conder will also be back in action right from the start.

Conder had a successful winter which included international representation in cross-country and the incentive of a trip to Hungary as captain of the New Zealand Schools Cross-Country Team to the World Schools Cross-Country next April.

Conder has a good base and has time to build the necessary speed over the weeks ahead. Symes, who so narrowly missed a medal at North Island, also has a vital role in relays being the only returning member of Collegiate's winning 4x400 and 4x100 teams from last year. A big responsibility lies with this promising young sprinter.

The senior club nights start next Tuesday (October 6) at 7pm with a shortened C programme followed by the AGM at 8pm. The Children's Club commences the following Monday at 4.15pm (October 12).