Manawatu athletes hot-foot it for medals
There were some great results for Athletics Manawatu-wanganui athletes competing at the New Zealand cross-country championships in Auckland last Sunday.
In the boys’ under-15 event George Lambert collected the silver medal, with Liam Wall finishing eighth.
Ashleigh Alabaster was third across the line in the girls’ under-15 race with Ana Brabyn finishing seventh.
The first four members across the line count towards the teams competition, with both the centres men’s and women’s under-18 teams gaining bronze medals.
In the under-18 women’s race Sarah Lambert was eighth, Caitlyn Alabaster 13th, Marseille Bowie 18th and Sarah Matthews 23rd as the scoring members, with Brittany Matthews 24th placing providing a good back up placing.
In the under-18 men’s race Liam Back led the team home in fourth place, closely followed by Benjamin Wall in sixth place.
Theo Purdy came 14th, with Andre Le-pine Day’s 27th placing completing the scoring athletes.
Noah Macdermid was 32nd, Thomas Conder 41st and Ben Conder 44th.
The centre picked up a further bronze medal in the masters women’s grade, with Mignon Stevenson finishing third in the W60 grade and Sian Cass in the W50 grade.
Kylah Gunn was 11th in the girls’ under-13 race.
In the senior events, Kara Macdermid was a creditable sixth in the women’s event, with David Lovelock 22nd and Liam Woolford 24th in the men’s event.
The third round of the winter track and field series is in Masterton on Sunday.
The meeting starts at 1pm with the 100m, discus, hammer and high jump.
At 1.20pm the combined race options of 1000m, 3000m and 5000m will commence.
At 1.45pm is the shot put and long jump.
The 1500m runners get their chance at 1.50pm, with the meeting concluding with the 400m and 2x200m relays.
The four-meeting series has a scholarship prize pool offer to the top 11 point scorers.
After the first two meetings Palmerston North athletes are dominating the points chart.
Zac Topping’s 178.24 points tops the chart.
Jordan Peters with 170.15 points sits in third place, just ahead of Courtney Trow’s 169.24 points. Corinna Minko is fifth, Ranae Savill sixth, Pavinee Watson seventh, Mike Shepherd 10th and Jacob Aomarere-poole 11th.
This week Jack Lewer is competing in the junior Para world championships F20 shot put in Notwil, Switzerland.
Jack has been on the Gold Coast warming up for this competition and is excited at moving onto Switzerland and putting on the black singlet.
Also starting this week is the IAAF world track and field championships in London and another of our club members, Ben Langton-burnell, will be representing New Zealand in the javelin.
I must say I’m looking forward to watching the world’s best in action, with no doubt the big focus being on what is reported to be Usain Bolt’s final competition.
Behind every athlete there is always a strong support team and while the successful athlete is often rewarded with a medal, the contribution of the coach will often go unrewarded.
I was delighted to learn at the world Para athletics championships, not only were medals awarded to the athletes, but also there were coaches medals awarded.
Former Sport Manawatu staff member Hamish Meacheam was a coach who received one and his recent social media posting is worth repeating.
Hamish said he was never the best runner and international medals became an unreachable dream for him.
He was pleased beyond words when Keegan Pitcher, one of the athletes he coaches, presented him with his coach medal from the world Para athletics 2017 London championships.
Pitcher finished third in both the 400m and 800m events. Hamish is now the chief executive of Parafed Auckland and heavily involved in the coaching of Para athletes.
What’s on. August 3-6: World Para athletics junior championships.
August 4-13: IAAF world track and field championships. August 5: Halcombe relay. August 6: Winter track series, Masterton.
August 12: Feilding Moa road race, Ashhurst.
August 17: Athletics Manawatu-wanganui road championships.
August 23-28: World University Games, Taipei.