Boys’ High runners show strong depth

Palmerston North Boys’ High School runners appear to have considerable strength across all grades and this was demonstrated when they sent teams to the Wellington schools cross-country relay championships last week.

They returned home with victory in the senior event and were runners-up in the junior relay.

The senior team of Benjamin Wall, Alex Hull, Samuel Phillips, Sam Bentham, Luke Scott and Harrison Porritt, had Wall leading off as first runner and his finishing sprint gave the team a handy lead going into the first change.

It was a lead that was never relinquished, allowing Porritt to bring the team home over 500m clear of the second-placed team.

The under-16 team of Liam Wall, Jack Pronk, Jamie Dennis, Nelson Doolan, William Leong and Andre Le-pine Day finished second which was a great effort by a very young team.

On Wednesday the Manawatu secondary schools cross-country championships are in Foxton.

In the junior girls race, Ashleigh Gunn (Freyberg High School) would appear to be the favourite.

The junior boys race would appear to be a battle between Nelson Doolan and last year’s winner, Liam Wall, but Tai Rolls-paewai was a convincing winner of the 3000m at the track championships, so must be in contention.

Sam Mackinder from Manukura won the junior title last year and must be favourite for the intermediate girls title this year.

I would expect the intermediate boys race to be the race of the championships, with Benjamin Wall being the form runner, but last year he was upstaged by Freyberg’s Theo Purdy, so I would expect these two to fight out the finish.

Noah Macdermid (Awatapu College) ran impressively in Japan and could be another in contention.

Feilding High School’s Tessa Webb has been in outstanding form, so must be favoured to win the senior girls event, but if Zia Macdermid competes it could be an interesting race.

Harrison Porritt is a very successful track athlete and I would expect him to perform well in the senior boys event, but I see that he was beaten in the Boys’ High championships by Sam Bentham.

Alex Hull is another top athlete who will be in contention.

Chris Sanson continues to amaze us with his energy.

One would expect that after his second placing in the Rotorua marathon a little over a week ago, he would be in recovery mode and taking things easy, but that was not the case as last weekend.

Chris competed in the Hawke’s Bay half marathon, winning in a sprint finish.

I was interested to read the editorial last week on the decline in the standard of sporting facilities in the city.

It touched a raw nerve for me as I know the athletics facilities at the Manawatu Community Athletic Track also fall into this category.

The track on the Massey campus is now 16 years old and starting to deteriorate rapidly.

A cold southerly wasn’t enough to deter a record 120 runners from participating in the latest Feilding Moa harrier cross-country run at Keewaydin Farm last Saturday.

Thanks to Tessa Webb and Bella Ives for this report.

The Minimoa’s (under 7 year olds) raced over 1km, with Hugo Smith coming in first, followed by Duncan Mcintyre, with Hazel Duker the first girl finisher in third place.

The remaining grades started together in a mass start in the sealed handicapped events.

In this event a handicapped time is added to the finishing time of each competitor, giving everyone a chance of winning.

There was plenty of mud and water underfoot as well as a trio of gates to hurdle on every lap.

The under-14s completed one lap of the 2.5km course, Angus Paterson winning both the handicap and overall fastest time in the boys. His time was bettered by the first three girls to finish with Bella Ives just holding off Hayley Cornwall.

Tessa Webb was the only junior women to compete in the 5km race and enjoyed mixing it with the boys, recording the fourth fastest time.

Benjamin Wall recorded the fastest time with the handicap honours going to Max Ferguson.

The women ran 7.5km, where Tamara Reed took line honours and Joanna Massa was the handicap winner.

Men contested four laps, 10km, and line honours went to PNAHC visitor Liam Woolford from Scott Whitley.

On adjusted time for the sealed handicap it was a well-deserved victory for 64-year-old Barrie Eccles.