Manawatu’s depth of talent bodes well for future

With this being the final contribution for the year, I decided to look at the achievements by Manawatu athletes over the past 12 months.

Athletics New Zealand compiles a listing of the best performances by athletes and these are listed in the various grades.

Manawatu athletes figure prominently in these statistics in which only an athlete’s best performance is listed.

In the open grades, Ben LangtonBurnell was ranked second with his 71.72m javelin throw, a similar ranking to that of Jordan Peters whose 2.10m high jump not only saw him take the second ranking in the open grade but top ranking in the junior grade.

Jordan also had the second- best junior ranking with both his 6.77m long jump ( 12th in the open ranking) and 13.95m triple jump ( 6th in the open listings).

Stephanie Dickins was another with a top junior ranking with her 62.75sec winning performance over the 400m hurdles which not only gained her the national title, but also third ranking on the open list.

Ashleigh Sando was another to figure prominently in the listings with her 5.71m long jump gaining the top junior placing and fifth overall. She was also ranked third in the junior listings for both high jump and 100m hurdles.

Quin Hartley in the 300m hurdles, Liam Carr in the long jump and Kara Macdermid in the 1500m all topped the youth grade ranking lists for 2013.

In the open listings, we saw Andy Kruy ranked sixth in the long jump and seventh in the 100m. Flatmate Zac Topping took fourth ranking for the 200m and 11th in the 100m; he also had the 13th best effort with the javelin.

Olivia Burne, now resident in the United States, had the sixth best 1500m performance, one place better than Kara Macdermid’s.

In the youth grade listings, Quin Hartley was also ranked fifth over 400m, one place better than Paddy Kellow. Liam Carr had the fourth best triple jump. Macdermid also gained the third ranking for 3000m, one place better than younger sister Zia, who also was listed eighth over 1500m . It was our younger athletes who set the tone for the year doing particularly well at the Colgate Games in Inglewood.

Ashhurst’s Ben Wall won both the 400 and 800m races. Noah Macdermid won the 1500m and Harrison Porritt the 80m hurdles . Relays are usually the highlight and our 9- year- olds brought much delight by winning the 4x100 relay. January was a good month for the club with national attention focusing on the world record cellphone throw by Ben LangtonBurnell, then a week later we saw Nick Willis in town producing the fastest 800m run of the year.

This was possibly the season’s highlight with Willis a brilliant ambassador for the sport and the way he interacted with the junior club members was priceless. The national championships in Auckland again saw Athletics Manawatu- Wanganui athletes punching well above their weight.

Being one of the smaller centres to win seven gold, 10 silver and six bronze medals was outstanding.

On a personal note one of the highlights for me was the sight for the second year in succession of two club members lining up in the 100m final. With Andy Kruy finishing third and Zac Topping fourth, both are now part of the Glasgow 4x100 relay squad and can quite rightly claim to be the fastest flatmates in the country.

In June we saw the NZ marathon championships in Wellington with Chris Sanson taking the bronze medal and David Lovelock sixth.

These great results, together with solid runs by Andy Good and Lance Gray, saw the Palmerston North club take the teams’ silver medal. The Manawatu Striders half marathon was again an outstanding success with large numbers competing. It was a great sight to see the road from the start line packed with runners.

The sport is in a very good state in Manawatu. The club’s coaching structure is the envy of other clubs and we have a number of highlyranked officials.

The Palmerston North club nights start again on January 7 .