Canoe polo champs come to town

Manawatu schools dominate the entries for the New Zealand secondary schools canoe polo championships at Makino Pool this weekend.

Palmerston North Boys’ High School will be defending their senior boys title in the three-day competition, which starts today. In their division one pool is St Peter’s College, Napier Boys’ High School and Hastings Boys’ High School.

In the other division one pool is Feilding High School, St John’s College from Hastings, Christchurch’s Middleton Grange School and last year’s beaten finalists Havelock North High School.

Hawke’s Bay’s Karamu High School won the senior girls title last year and are in division one group A with Feilding, Havelock North and Horowhenua College.

In group B is Hastings Girls’ High School, Napier Girls’ High School, Palmerston North Girls’ High School and Taradale High School.

In the division two senior boys, Awatapu College, Karamu, Long Bay College (Auckland) and Boys’ High are competing in group A.

In group B is Feilding, Francis Douglas Memorial College, Napier and Te Puke High School.

In division two is Freyberg High School, Middleton Grange, Girls’ High, Sacred Heart College, and Wairarapa College.

Competing in the junior boys open is Feilding, Hastings Boys’ High School, Karamu, Napier, Boys’ High, St John’s and St Peter’s.

In the junior girls competition is Feilding, Horowhenua, Karamu, Napier and Taradale.

Feilding won the boys senior division two last year and Napier Girls’ High School won the girls.

St Peter’s won the junior open boys competition and Horowhenua won the girls.

There are 43 teams entered this year, but only two from the South Island.

Games start today at 12pm, with a full day of play on Saturday, then playoffs will run from 7.40am to 2.15pm on Sunday. Te Puke