Plenty of southern achievers at Colgate Games
IT was an impressive weekend for several southern youngsters at the South Island Colgate Games.
Nearly 900 junior athletes flocked to Dunedin for the annual meeting, held at the Caledonian Ground from Friday to yesterday.
Aspiring’s Billie Crowe was dominant in the girls 12 grade.
She ran impressive times to win both the 400m and 1500 and followed that up with gold in the 800m yesterday.
Alongside Grace White, Estelle Gellatly and Millie East, she also helped Aspiring to win the 4×100m relay by nearly two seconds.
Aspiring also claimed victory in the girls 14 4×100m relay.
Invercargill’s Quinn Hartley was similarly dominant.
He cleared a massive 1.93m to win the 14 boys high jump — equalling the best height at the games since 2008.
He claimed gold in the long jump, silver in the 100m and 200m — edged by clubmate Caden Faulkner — and bronze in the 400m.
Hartley and Faulkner added another gold when they helped Invercargill win the 4×100m relay.
Meanwhile, Caitlin Hartley also got among the medals by claiming gold in the girls 13 long jump.
Manaia Lesa was a star in the boys 11 grade.
The Hill City runner won the 100m by over half a second in 12.56sec, and the 200m by over a second in 27.74sec.
He also helped his Hill City 4×100m relay team — also featuring JahTayzia McBride, Max Holgate and Serge Meeuws — to gold.
Taieri’s Shyah Beattie and Hill City’s Nirvana HepiBreen won gold and silver in the discus and shot put.
Beattie edged HepiBreen in the discus, before HepiBreen got one back in the shot put.
Lila Rhodes also claimed two gold medals, the Hill City runner comprehensively winning both the girls 10 800m and 1500m.
In the relays Hill City claimed gold in the 14 mixed medley race, while Invercargill won the 10 boys 4×100m.
Others to win gold medals from the south included: Carlie Scherp (Winton), Maia Petterson (Gore), Maddie Taylor (Gore), Jasper Thomas (Queenstown), Millar McElrea (Taieri), Jacob Waide (Hill City), Rico Fisher (Invercargill), Charlotte Byers (Hill City) and William
Robertson (Invercargill).