Dominating down south at Colgates

Last week, I covered the local results from the North Island Colgate Games.

Unfortunately, I missed recording one of the medal winners.

Apologies must go to Madelaine Davey, from Feilding Athletic, for my oversight in missing including her bronze-medal winning effort in the year12 girls’ discus.

She repeated this feat again last weekend at the South Island Colgate Games in Timaru, winning another bronze.

Manawatu¯ athletes were certainly on fire at this meeting, returning home with a record number of pennants and medals.

Our 9-year-old boys were outstanding, with Beau Kennedy winning gold pennants in the 60-metre and 200m races and a silver in the 100m.

William Rolfe also collected a gold pennant from the 200m to go with his silver pennants in the 60m, 100m and long jump.

Hunter Kennedy ran a personal best to collect silver in the boys’ 10-year 400m, after earlier winning bronze medals in the 100m, 200m and long jump.

Jayde Rolfe also collecting a bronze medal in the girls’ 12-year 400m.

Sophie Williams returned home with silver medals in both the girls’ 13-year 100m and 200m – a repeat of her North Island results.

At both meetings, she was headed by Auckland’s Naidia Evans, who we recall as one of the star performers when the Colgate Games were held in Palmerston North.

A perfect walking performance from Ari Bennett, representing Ashhurst, saw him become the gold-medal winner in the boys’ 10-year walk.

There are always unlucky athletes who just miss out on the medals. Forbes Kennedy is one, clearing 1.43m in the high jump, which was the same height as the silver-medal winner, but earlier failures saw him placed fifth on countback.

Feilding’s Ethan Worboys was another to just miss out, with fourth placings in both the boys’ 12-year discus and shot put.

It was intriguing to see the winner of the boys’ 13-year 400m was Quinn Hartley from Invercargill, who has the same name, but a different spelling, as the Athletics NZ national 400m titleholder, our own Quin Hartley.

Special thanks to Suzanne Kennedy and Tara Rolfe, part of the management team, for doing such a brilliant job in keeping us informed with the results from this meeting.

Janae Laing (Ashhurst), Kahurangi Skudder (Levin), Hannah Cadzow, Kylah Gunn and, Johnny Rouxel (Palmerston North) competed in the Trans-tasman Challenge in Auckland last weekend, with Rouxel given the honour of being named men’s team captain.

With the Palmerston North track out of action and club nights suspended until the resurfacing is completed, it was good to see athletes travel to Masterton to compete in the Wellington Grand Prix meeting.

Zac Topping won the 100m in 10.93 seconds and the 200m in 22.29s. Brayden Grant recorded a personal best in winning the 400m in 49.24s.

Another athlete to record a personal best was Benjamin Wall, running 4m 00.62s for third in the 1500m.

It was a Palmerston North one, two, three in the women’s high jump, with Ranae Savill clearing 1.60m to take the event from Sam Mackinder and Courtney Trow, who both cleared 1.55m. Mackinder also took third place in the long jump, with Trow fourth.

In the men’s long jump, Jordan Peters showed that he appears to have recovered from injury, getting out to 7m, while Jack Nesdale had the discus out to 45.19m to claim victory in that event.

Leah Powick took second place in both the women’s 100m and 200m, while Tessa Webb won the 1500m.

This weekend sees the start of a busy week for athletes, with the Classic series of events starting with the Capital Classic in Whanganui on Saturday.

The Cooks Classic on Tuesday is also in Whanganui, then we move across to Hastings the following Saturday for the Potts Classic.

Whanganui is the alternative venue for this Saturday’s meeting, as the Newtown Park track resurfacing has not been completed in Wellington.

Organisers confirmed the move yesterday. The death of Royce Wilkie in Tauranga on Boxing Day brings back memories of his ability to attract athletes to meetings he promoted.

The most memorable for me is the only sub 4-minute mile to be run in Palmerston North, when on March 11, 1981, at Memorial Park, John Walker ran his fastest ever mile on grass, recording a time of 3m 54.6s.

Walker was not the only big name to make an appearance at this meeting, as I recall both Rod Dixon and Dick Quax also competing in one of the other events on the programme.

What’s On

January 16 Manawatu Striders Super Seven

January 17 Jump to Music, Hawera January 20-27 Oceania Masters Championships, Dunedin

January 20 Capital Classic, Wellington January 23 Cooks Classic, Whanganui January 27 Potts Classic, Hastings