Long standing running record broken
A 41-year-old Northland 800m record set by a Kerikeri runner has been broken by a Springbank School student.
Jai Dawson, 13, ran the Junior Boys 800m at the Northland Secondary Schools Track and Field Championships on March 16 to claim a new record with a time of 2.08.78.
The previous record time was set by Gerard Honiss, running for Kerikeri High School, in 1976 with a time of 2.10.30.
Honiss says he was excited to learn that his record had been broken.
‘‘I’m excited, for a long time I have been wondering when it was going to happen.
‘‘I don’t know why it has taken so long to break, after 40 years that’s pretty good.’’
Both runners completed their races with barefeet but Dawson’s race was completed on an artificial track compared to Honiss’ record being set on the grass track at Kaitaia College.
Dawson also claimed the winner’s medal in the 1500m at the event held at Whangarei’s Trigg Stadium.
He was also the unofficial winner of both events in 2016, but was too young to have the times officially recorded.
Dawson says it felt really good to win and break the 800m record.
‘‘There’s a lot of people before me who hadn’t beaten it.’’
He says he was one of two barefoot runners out of eight competitors in the final, where the rest of his challengers were wearing special running spikes.
The year nine student is also a keen football player for the North Force Football Club Under 14/15 team, made up of Northland’s best young players. shoes with
Most of his running training is done during football practices but he also trains with the school’s athletics squad once a week.
Honiss set several school and Northland athletics records during his school years, some of which were broken 15 years after they were first set.
He was also the swimming and athletics champion for the four years he attended Kerikeri High School.
Honiss says he discovered that it wasn’t all about winning.
‘‘Winning is great, but it is just knowing you’d put in your best performance in, where you had nothing left and they weren’t always your winning performances.’’