School cycling team takes title
Parents helping with coaching and supervision played a key part in James Hargest College winning the top school title at the South Island Secondary Schools Road Cycling Championships.
James Hargest is the first Southland school to win the title but it was a close call in beating defending champion Christchurch Boys’ High School in Timaru recently. The schools were tied at the end of competition.
A countback on the number of wins showed they had the same. James Hargest became the outright winner by having the most seconds.
The college’s sports co-ordinator and cycling team manager, Waine Harding, said the school’s riders deserved the title. ‘‘I’m absolutely stoked.
‘‘All the riders performed really well.’’ Harding is grateful to parents for helping him organise training and planning for competitions. Input from parents Brendon McLeod and Gerald Paterson, who are Cycling Southland coaches, was invaluable, Harding said.
Also, skills learned at Cycling Southland’s junior road programme had helped James Hargest riders to end the winning streak of Christchurch Boys’ High School.
Boys’ High had a stranglehold on the title for many years, while other winning schools to feature on the trophy have been Villa Maria College (Christchurch) and Taieri High School.
James Hargest has been sending a team to the championships for 12 years. This year it had 15 riders competing, compared to 33 from Boys’ High.
Fifty seven schools and 250 riders took part.
‘‘We have slowly increased our results [over the years] to finally be overall top school,’’ Harding said.
Senior rider Emily Paterson, who won a time-trial, said the extra training done by the team was important.
‘‘It definitely helped us to prepare,’’ she said.
Emily and teammate Conor Shearing rode for New Zealand at the Oceania Championships in Cambridge last year and are in Academy Southland.
Parent Richard Erwood said his son, Marshall, and other James Hargest cyclists put in many hours of training on Southland roads, with some clocking up to 150 kilometres a week.
James Hargest will have riders competing at the South Island Secondary Schools Track Championships at the Invercargill velodrome in September. In October, the school will be represented at the National Secondary Schools Road Championships in Christchurch.