Teen runner surprises with a double win

A Napier teenager was the surprise of possibly New Zealand’s biggest and toughest athletics competition when he won the New Zealand Secondary Schools championships junior 100m and 200m sprint double in Dunedin.

Competing for Napier Boys High School at the championships in Dunedin on November 30-December 2, Joshua Adegoke won the junior boys 100m final in 11.4sec, and the 200m in 23.19sec.

He was part of the Napier Boys’ High School team which was runner-up in the senior boys 4x100m relay, won by Auckland Grammar.

The sprint wins were well outside meet records for the two events. The records of 10.88sec for the 100m and 21.19sec for the 200m were set 28 years ago by Mark Keddell of St Bede’s, Christchurch, while the only records set by athletes from Hawke’s Bay schools date back even further to the junior girls 200m record set by Briar Toop, of Havelock North High School in 1987, and the senior boys 1500m record set by Richard Potts, of St John’s College Hastings, in 1989.

Joshua was a comfortable winner from runner-up Max Brebner of Tauranga in both sprints, particularly the 100m with winning margin of about 2m. In January he won both 14 years boys sprints in his last year at the Colgate Games in Auckland, and said he would target the 200m and long jump at the schools championships.

With Joshua in the senior relay team earlier this month were Wesley Akeripa, Ben Allan and Toby Archer.

Coach and school deputy principal Bruce Smith says the sprint squad — the Twitches — had a great meet with Ben and Toby making the 200m senior boys’ final.

The school claimed a third gold medal when Ryan Jones surprised by wining the 3000m open race walk. A Year 10 student in an event open to all ages, Ryan was last in the field by at least 80m for two laps before moving through the field andtaking the gold medal.

The school claimed podium results in both distance events on the road, a bronze medal with the three-man junior team of Sam Elliott, Tim LeCheminantReid and Ethan Green, and the silver in the senior race with Reid Livingston, Oliver Marshall and Max Taylor.

There were two wins in Para events for Guy Harrison — 2km multi-class senior boys road race and the senior discus, and second place in the 400m Para senior sprint, and third in 200m.