Whanganui Athletics goes digital

PHOTO CALL: The winning mixed school team at the Rotorua Ekiden at the weekend (from left) Sarah Matthews, Ethan Gillespie, Sophie McCarthy, Charlie Waddy, Brittney Matthews and Jack Gay.

"The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft a-gley." (Robert Burns)"Was highlighted at the opening Athletics Wanganui Club Night on Tuesday evening.

At the weekend the new computers and photo timing camera was installed with the intention of using the opening club night as a trial for the new equipment. However, as so often with new equipment there were teething problems that thankfully appear to have been resolved but not in time for the events on Tuesday when we reverted to hand timing.

It was a blessing that with Collegiate still on holiday there were only a few athletes attending and that we have every confidence that the state of the art equipment will be in action next Tuesday in what promises to be a big night of athletics.

Although there were only a few athletes in attendance there were a number of really encouraging performances with a personal best 12.15 m shot win for heptathlete Lexi Maples, personal bests from Brittney Matthews over both the 2000 metre road race and 300 metres and personal bests from Tom Mathews over both 60 metres and 150 metres (albeit hand-timed).

Genna Maples looked good competing against boys especially in the 150 metres where she stopped the hand held watch at an impressive 19.5 seconds backed by a 8.0s performance over 60 metres.

All the above athletes had attended the Wanganui Collegiate pre- season camp in Hastings last week. It bodes well that during the middle week of a three week holiday that 28 athletes attended camp, with 10 being joined by two others at the annual Rotorua Ekiden Relay straight afterwards.

At the camp all attended number of coaching, training and planning sessions over the three days. They received outstanding coaching from Terry Lomax the Campaign Manager of the Athletics New Zealand High Performance programme. Lomax conducted sessions for hurdlers, high jumpers and sprinters. His outstanding coaching was appreciated by all.

Athletes also received an outstanding session from Hawked Bay physiotherapist Tony Snell who gave invaluable information on self- testing.

At the Ekiden Relay late defections meant that for the first time Collegiate did not field a boys' team and injury meant that a slightly weakened girl's team was defeated by the strongly performed Tauranga Girls College team.

The remaining boys and the three girls not selected for the girl's team combined as a strong mixed team that won that section of a relay which attracted in excess of 2000 athletes.

The mixed team finished only metres behind the winning boys school (Rotorua Boys High School). The team of Charlie Waddy, Jack Gay, Ethan Gillespie, Brittney Matthews, Sarah Matthews and Sophie McCarthy performed above expectations. Both McCarthy and Matthews have only recently turned 13 and have exciting futures in the sport.

Next Monday is the opening night for children, The basic coaching course at the weekend conducted by Mark Harris from Masterton gave invaluable information and skills to those that attended. These skills gained should help provide real impetus to the new programmes on Mondays headed by Jodie Brunger from Sport Whanganui,

The following night, Tuesday, is our first major club night of the season, hopefully with our updated photo -finish equipment fully operational. The night doubles as the Wanganui Collegiate Schools Open Championships to be held over two weeks. The events contested on Tuesday are 100m, 400m, 1500m, Long Jump and Shot.

There are medals for winners including non -Collegiate athletes. The same events appear on the club programme for non-championships with the addition of a 300 metres for younger athletes. The full programme for Tuesday appears on the Athletic Wanganui website as it will each week. Monday also sees the AGM to be held at Sport Whanganui at 7.30pm.

We hope the well laid plans come to fruition and that we lay a foundation for a successful season.