Young athletes head into unknown

SPEED MACHINE: Whanganui's Genna Maples makes a sprint into the unknown at the North Island Secondary Schools Championships in Auckland this weekend with the credentials to do very well.PHOTO/ROB VAN DORT

RIGHT on schedule at 7.55pm on Tuesday eight 2x100 metre relay combinations competed in the final event of the 2015-16 season. However, most of those relay pairings have one more championship ahead of them in Auckland at the North Island Schools Championships.

The North Island Schools and the South Island equivalent traditionally held on the first weekend of April bring the curtain down on the domestic season. The North Island Championships is contested by 11 regionally-selected representative teams and therefore differs in this respect from the other major meetings through the season.

These regional combinations have made results hard to predict as many unknown athletes who shone at their own regional secondary schools events appear for the first time. I can remember clearly the late Jonah Lomu in impressive action selected for Counties-Manukau on account of his performances for Wesley College at their championships.

Not unexpectedly with 68 of the 88 Whanganui titles won, Wanganui Collegiate provide the bulk of the Whanganui team.

It is pleasing that the team has other leading performers from Rangitikei College, Ruapehu College, Taihape Area School and a group of seven from Wanganui High School competing in Auckland

Sadly, one or two leading senior grade athletes have chosen not to travel for a variety of reasons, including the start of winter sport.

I find it slightly sad that they do not have one last fling on the track before putting on their boots for a long winter.

Many great winter code performers competed, including the aforementioned Lomu, All Blacks winger Doug Howlett and closer to home Stephen Perofeta who ran in the winning relay and finished a highly creditable 5th in the senior 100 metres just last year.

Tuesday's club night provided good preparation for Auckland.

Harry Symes was back on the track following injury and looked sharp and combined with Luke Foster for a season's best 2x100 which bodes well as Whanganui seeks to retain the senior 4x100 title. Symes will run in both the 100 metres and 200 metres at the weekend before flying to California for a series of meets in Los Angeles and San Diego.

Oliver O'Leary will also be on that USA tour and will be looking to finally break Josh van Dalen's Collegiate junior 800 metre record in Auckland or in California.

Grace Godfrey would love to break her sequence of fourth places in major 400 metre races at the weekend when she starts in both the 200 metres and 400 metres.

She also leaves the country next week bound for the Oceania Regional Championships in Tahiti to run in her specialist 400 metres.

Her Tahiti teammate Opetini Dryden, who has battled a shoulder injury, will sit out the North Island Championships.

Christian Conder, who travels even further next month to Hungary and the World Schools Cross Country, will also sit out the North Island.

He is clearly in good form coasting through the 2000 metre road race and running a personal best 1000 metres 20 minutes later on Tuesday evening. His Hungary teammate Jane Lennox will start at the North Island as one of the favourites in the steeplechase.

There are a large group of Year 9 athletes who will take steps into the unknown at the weekend as they attend their first secondary school major competition. Recent form suggests that Genna Maples has the credentials to succeed at this higher level.

She performed with distinction at the Whanganui Secondary Schools winning four titles. Maples ran a personal best over 150 metres on Tuesday and had a slick 2x100 combination with outstanding 300 metre prospect Tayla Brunger that bodes well for both in their individual and relay events.

Throwers Sophie Andrews (High School) and Phoebe Collier had a useful javelin work out.

The six athletes leaving for overseas are hosting a "Farewell Breakfast" at 7.10am at the Grand Hotel next Tuesday (April 5).

Support would be appreciated - $20 for adults and $15 for students.

Anyone wishing to attend should text me on 021 421 145 by noon on Monday to secure a ticket.