Close competition likely at college event
The cream of Manawatu’s young athletics talent will be on display at the Manawatu Community Athletics track today as they contest the secondary schools athletic championships.
Some of the best performances are expected to be in the senior girls events.
Lydia Bamford (Palmerston North Girls’ High School) will compete in the 100m, long jump and triple jump.
Tessa Webb (Feilding High School) will compete in the 1500m and 3000m.
Lea Muetzal (Freyberg High School) is in the high jump and Zia Macdemid (Awatapu College) is in the 800m.
All these young women competed with distinction at the Athletics New Zealand championships last weekend.
Courtney Walsh (St Peter’s College) is on the comeback trail from injury and will contest the 300m open hurdles.
Jessica Pfefferle (Nga Tawa Diocesan School) is expected to do well in the throws.
Harrison Porritt (Palmerston North Boys’ High School) should win the senior boys 400m and 800m races, while St Peter’s’ Bernard Wagener would be favourite for the sprints.
The open boys 3000m should be a good race, with the Boys’ High representation sure to be to the fore.
I would expect Alex Hull to win the senior title, with Benjamin Wall favoured for the intermediate title where he will be challenged by Andre Le Pine-day and Freyberg’s Theo Purdy.
Nelson Doolan would be my choice for the junior title.
The intermediate boys 1500m has a great line up, with Wall the favourite, but I expect Le-pine Day and Purdy to be in the mix and I wouldn’t count out Awatapu’s Noah Macdermid.
Mark Seumanu is one to watch in the high jump as is TJ Vauli in the long jumps and the sprints. Reif Dawson should also figure in the sprint results.
In the intermediate girls events, the high jump should be a good battle between Sam Mackinder (Manukura) and Freyberg’s Ranae Saville.
Kyra Tikitiki (St Peter’s) will be one to watch in the sprints, with host school’s Heeni Vinsen (Waiopehu College) and Jessie Falloon (Girls’ High) her main challengers.
Teresa Davenport (Feilding) is one to watch in the horizontal jumps.
The junior boys I expect to do well are Ben Sefo (Boys’ High) in the discus, Rian Lyver in the high jump, Tahu Te Oka (Feilding) in the sprints and Liam Wall in the middle distance races.
The junior girls will have some great performances and I am expecting Emma Leader (Girls’ High) to be one of the meeting’s star performers. She will contest the 100m 200m 70m hurdles and long jump.
Ashleigh Gunn (Freyberg) and Nicole Whiteman (Girls’ High) are ones to watch, as they clash in the 400m and 800m races.