Medal haul for local athletes
The 2020-21 athletic season came to a conclusion last weekend with the North Island Secondary Schools Championships being contested in Hamilton.
Manawatu¯ athletes were to the fore, returning home with seven O gold, 12 silver and 12 bronze medals – a very impressive haul.
These performances certainly had the rest of the New Zealand sitting up and taking notice of one of the smaller regions outperforming many of the major regions.
A testament to the hard work put in by our coaches and the work ethics of our athletes. The hard work and support they give to one another certainly has paid off.
The honours list
Gold medals: Angus Lyver senior boys’ long jump 6.74 metres, Forbes Kennedy intermediate boys’ long jump 6.74m, and 200m 22.30 seconds, Chayille Collette intermediate girls’ 100m 12.04s, Addira Collette intermediate girls’ 200m 24.26s, Braxton Kauri intermediate boys’ 300m hurdles 38.83s (meeting record), Kimberley Walsh intermediate girls’ 400m 56.61s.
Silver medals: Lyver senior boys’ 200m 22.22s, Chayille Collette intermediate girls’ 200m 24.47s, Addira Collette intermediate girls’ 100m 12.08s, Hayley Cornwall junior girls’ 800m 2 minutes 23.14s and 1500m 4m 51.60s, Courtney Trow senior girls’ high jump 1.60m, Amber Trow intermediate girls’ high jump 1.60m, Taylor Hall junior boys’ 300m 39.03s, intermediate girls’ 4x100m relay 48.66s (Addira and Chayille Collette, Monique Gorrie, Kimberley Walsh), senior boys’ 4x100m relay 43.46s (Luke Te Moana, Caleb Evans, Dirki Botha, Lyver), intermediate girls’ 4x400m relay 3m 55.87s (Jayde Rolfe, Hayley Cornwall, Gorrie, Walsh), senior boys’ 4x400m relay 3m 29.88s (Aden Porritt, Dirki Botha, Fraser Babb, Te Moana).
Bronze medals: Lyver senior boys’ javelin 49.72m, Alice Cook intermediate girls’ triple jump 10.45m, Queenie Morgan junior girls’ high jump 1.45m, Kahurangi Skudder junior girls’ 100m 13.13s, Kauri senior boys’ 110m hurdles 15.86s, Porritt senior boys’ 300m hurdles 40.48s, Walsh intermediate girls’ 200m 25.30s, Ryder Crosswell junior boys triple jump 11.38m, Vikani Teumohenga senior boys’ pole vault 3m, Gorrie intermediate girls 57.68s, junior girls 4x100m relay 52.78s (Tayma Jahnke, Eden Rolfe, Cornwall, Skudder), intermediate boys 4x100m relay 44.51s (Nehemiah Su’a, Kauri, Forbes Kennedy, Dylan Calder).
Fourth spot: Other performances of note were those that just missed out on medals finishing in that dreaded fourth position.
Janae Laing in the intermediate girls’ hammer throw, Skudder in the junior girls’ 200m, Nelson Doolan in the senior boys’ steeplechase, Teise Tumohenga in the intermediate girls’ pole vault, and Botha and Porritt who dead-heated for fourth in the senior boys’ 400m.
In the long jump we had Morgan in the junior girls, Su’a in the junior boys and Courtney Trow in the senior girls’ event all finishing fourth.
Highlights: We cannot go past the dominance of Tara Rolfe’s group of intermediate sprinters taking out the first two placings in the 100m, the first three places in the 200m and first, third and seventh in the 400m. Add in second placings for both relays.
There was also the success of our male sprinters winning the intermediate 200m, and having three of the finalists in the senior boys’ 200m finishing second, fifth and seventh, and the results from our jump squad winning both the intermediate and senior boys’ titles.
The North Island championship offers the seasoned athlete a final competition, and it also provides the opportunity for talented sportspeople to realise their potential in a sport they have not previously been involved in.
This was certainly the case with our athletes all performing with distinction, and hopefully we will see many of them continue in our sport.
One of the team managers sent me the following note: ‘‘I was so immensely proud of the support the athletes gave each other. It was first obvious on Saturday morning when Forbes Kennedy was competing in the long jump. It was raining but around 15 team members were on the sideline in their team T-shirts urging him on.
‘‘Forbes responded with his winning jumps. The weather didn’t deter them – from then I saw the mass support happen throughout the meet.’’
Congratulations – you certainly mademanawatu¯ 0roud.