Mid-winter meeting for athletes
Highly ranked athletes braved the winter cold for the second meeting of the Winter Track and Field series at the Manawatu¯ Community Athletic Track.
Although weather conditions were far from ideal on Sunday, some good out-of-season performances were recorded.
The sprint races were keenly contested, with some great times.
The fields included Zac Topping, a member of the national relay squad, Issac Oliver, bronze medallist in the youth grade 200 metres at this year’s national championships, Cody Wilson, the national Junior 100m titleholder, and Saravee Sos, Wellington’s sprint titleholder.
Topping won the 60m sprint in 7.29 seconds, ahead of Oliver 7.48s and Sos 7.55s.
The athletes had the option of running the 200m or opting for a 2x100m relay.
Sos took out the 200m in 23.18s, ahead of Brayden Grant’s 23.96s. In the 2x100 relay, Wilson and Oliver combined to take this event out in 23.19s. The Wairarapa pairing of Liam Montgomery and Ethan Butcher were second.
Sam Merson and Zac Topping, who were part of the club 4x400m relay team awarded the Manawatu¯ sports team of the year award, failed to complete the journey after a missed baton change.
The women’s sprints were also full of talent.
Corinna Minko, the national long jump silver medallist, won the 60m race in 8.07s. Pavinee Watson ran a personal-best 8.25s for second.
Some of the most exciting local talent come in the form of two Whanganui youngsters, Genna Maples and Tayla Brunger, and it was great to see them in action.
Maples, who won both the 100m and 200m youth titles and a silver medal in the long jump at the national athletic championships, took out the 200m in 27.67s.
Brunger, who is the youth 400m champion, took out the 800m ahead of Vanessa Story. Maples and Brunger then combined to run 26.77s in an impressive 2x100m relay display.
The middle-distance races saw William Prior from Wairarapa take out the 1000m race from Liam Wall, Samuel Phillips and Rueben Duker. Skye Burema was the women’s winner.
The men continued on to the 3000m mark, with Andre Le Pineday heading off Benjamin Wall and Andrew Davenport.
Wellington’s Tina Faulkner, who is off to the World Masters Championships, completed the 5000m in 17m 18.88s a great solo effort.
The 800m race followed shortly after, with the three placegetters from the 3000m race lining up again. Victory went to Mikael Starzynski, the national junior 400m titleholder.
Long jump national champion Jordan Peters was up against Brendon Barnett, the runner-up in this event both this year and last year.
Barnett was better on the day, taking out the event with a windassisted 7.08m, ahead of Peters’ best of 6.95m, also wind-assisted.
Whanganui’s Keiran Perre was the best in the triple jump, with an effort of 12.10m, heading off Wilson’s best of 11.58m
The women’s high jump produced a great competition. Lea Muetzel, Ranae Savill and Sam Mackinder all cleared at 1.5m. With the bar at 1.55m, Savill took the lead with her first attempted clearance.
Muetzel managed to stay in the competition, clearing the bar on her third attempt, while Mackinder’s three failures meant she was eliminated and placed third.
The bar was then raised to 1.6m, which Muetzel was able to clear on her second attempt to take victory from Savill, who failed her three attempts at this height.
❚ The meeting series offers athletic scholarships to the top five point scorers over the three meetings. After two meetings, Topping leads the points from Grant, with Jordan Peters in fourth place.
The next meeting is in Masterton on 26 August.
❚ Our thoughts and best wishes for a speedy recovery go out to one of our young promising athletes, Monique Gorrie, and her mother Suzanne, who were among those injured in the Turoa bus crash.