North Shore Times (New Zealand)
Historic running title haul
Westlake Boys High keeps turning out running champions, Felicity Reid reports
championships before.
‘‘Winning the six team titles and making history was good, but more satisfying for me was the number of individual runners in the top 10 and also in positions 10 to 20,’’ Strydom said.
‘‘We had two runners in every grade in the top 10, the only school in New Zealand to do so. We also had two boys in the NZ Cross Country Team - again the only school in New Zealand.’’
With some of the best schoolboy runners in the country going through the Westlake programme over the last few years, the school has seen a year 10 running academy, introduced in 2012 and a year 9 running academy, introduced last year, pay off.
‘‘We were very competitive at national events over the last seven or so years, but 2016 was very special,’’ Strydom said.
‘‘We won a total of 15 national titles with a further six runner-up performances last year. At the National Cross Country Champs in Rotorua last year, we won six titles and it was good to back it up this year with very similar results.
‘‘Our year 9 and junior boys won back-to-back national cross country titles and winning the Premier grade this year was the cherry on the cake.’’
At Westlake, distance running is on an equal footing to rugby, football or basketball and this goes a long way to get boys into the programme, Strydom said.
The school also offers its runners lots of opportunities to bond and improve.
On June 24, 18 boys left for South Africa and Kenya for a distance running tour. This is the eighth time since 2008 that the school has undertaken this tour.
The boys get selected at the end of year 9 based on their commitment to the programme – not ability.
During the tour, the boys will spend a week in Gauteng and Mpumalanga where they will get the opportunity to measure themselves against South African opposition.
On July 10, the tour party heads to Nairobi, Kenya and onto Iten, 450km north west of Nairobi.
Iten, also known as the ‘‘Home of Champions’’ is a village 2450m above sea level.
The village has a population of 4000 of which 3000 are professional runners.
Iten is the training base for most the top Kenyan runners.
The Westlake boys will meet and run with some big names in the sport, including the likes of Abel Kirui (double world marathon champion), Wilson Kipsang (London Marathon champion and former world record holder) and Asbel Kiprop (Olympic 1500m champion).
The boys will stay at the High Altitude Training Centre in Iten.