Manawatu athletes excel at Inglewood

Last Saturday I travelled to Inglewood to officiate on the first day of the North Island secondary schools track and field championships.

Part of the reason I chose to officiate this meeting was my desire to see competition on the newly installed Mondo track, one of the surfaces under consideration for the Palmerston North track resurfacing.

Going by the number of North Island records bettered during the championships, I think the new surface has passed with flying colours. Although I was only at the meeting for the first day, I witnessed a number of outstanding performances by Manawatu athletes.

This continued on the second day as well and the Manawatu team returned home with 11 first places, 13 second places and five third placings, and many athletes achieved big personal bests.

In the 800m races, there was victory in both the intermediate and senior boys.

If I thought Benjamin Wall’s victory in the intermediate race was great with a brilliant finishing burst, this was matched or possibly bettered by Harrison Porritt in the senior event.

Both Benjamin and Harrison repeated these victories on Sunday when they won the 1500m events.

Tessa Webb was dominant in the senior girls 3000m, winning by a large margin.

I mentioned the talented group of high jumpers we have locally and this was backed up again at this meeting. On Saturday Mark Seumanu and Josh Pakai shared first place in the intermediate boys event, both clearing 1.85m.

Courtney Trow cleared 1.50m on her second attempt in the junior girls event, the same height as the second place getter, but was relegated to fourth place when the countback was applied.

On Sunday Lea Meutzel won the senior girls high jump, with Raene Savill taking second placing and Sam Mackinder third in the intermediate girls event.

Lydia Bamford produced personal bests in both her long jump and triple jump, winning the triple jump with a 11.30m effort.

On the first day, second placings seemed to follow Manawatu athletes. In the junior girls Atareta Mccausland-durie finished second in the 100m behind the outstanding Genna Maples.

Emma Leader gave an impressive display of hurdling to finish second in the 70m hurdles, while Kuini Foniti’s 28.83m throw in the javelin also placed her in second placing.

Phoenix Martin was another to finish second with his effort in the intermediate boys discus.

Reuben Brown was second in the senior long jump, with his best effort only 1cm less than the winning distance. Shay Syme was another to gain a second placing in the intermediate boys long jump.

In the senior boys 4x100m relay team, which had members from four different schools, Bernard Wagenar, Kurtis Goulett, Shaquille Mackey and Piere Savage combined to grab second.

Theo Purdy had lots of support and ran a fine race for third in the intermediate boys 3000m.

Nicola Chase had a best shot put of 12.63m to take third place in the senior girls event. Bradyn Popow took second in the 3000m walk.

Jack Lewer won both the Para shot and discus events, with his winning effort in the shot put of 11.55m a championship record.

Brayden Kendall finished second in the 100m, 200m, long jump and shot put, while Jamie Davidson was third in both the 100m and shot put.

One of the joys of this meeting is it is often the first opportunity for many of these athletes to experience a major athletics competition and for some it can be the introduction to making athletics their major sport. Two examples of athletes who started with North Island secondary schools championships and went on to better things would be Zac Topping and Scott Burch, who have both represented New Zealand in relay teams.

Congratulations to all the Manawatu athletes that took part.

Special thanks must be extended to the management team and all the parents that travelled to Taranaki to support the team.

In Tara, Anne, George and Digger we have a management team second to none.

The harrier season is already underway and Feilding Moa are reporting good numbers to their weekly runs, with close on 100 competitors taking part in last week’s run.

Their next run is at Woodruffes Farm on SH3, Awahuri this Saturday.

The Anzac Day relays are fast approaching and clubs will be starting to sort out their teams for this keenly contested event.

This event, with its relatively short 1500m laps, is attractive to both track athletes, as well as the harriers and creates a lot of competition for bragging rights within teams.