Seeds’ make cross country family affair
Silverstream’s Finn and Jonah Seeds turned Sunday’s New Zealand Cross Country Championships into a family affair.
The brothers, representing Trentham United Harriers, took out the under 15 and under-13 titles at the high-profile nationals raced at the Auckland Domain on July 30
Finn, an already proven talent who also races with national success on the track, won the under-15 event for a second year in a row.
A Hutt Valley Sports Awards finalist in May, Finn powered away in the second half of his 3 kilometre race, winning in 10 minutes and 12 seconds, a comfortable eight seconds clear of Wanganui’s George Lambert.
Ahead of Finn’s success it was 12-year-old Jonah’s turn to shine.
Also at HIBS, in year 8, Jonah’s win in the 2 kilometre under-13 event was even more emphatic. He was 19 seconds clear of the next best runner in a race he led from the start and finished in 6m:59s
‘‘Jonah just ran away from them at the start,’’ mother Ruth Seeds said.
‘‘He got clear in the first hundred metres.
‘‘I was quite shocked really but afterwards he said he’d decided to get in the front early to avoid any bottleneck on the course where it soon narrowed.
‘‘So he did that and was surprised to see that no one went with him.’’
Jonah’s success comes after a difficult 2016 where because of ‘‘growing pain’’ tendon problems in his heels he had to give his running away,’’ she said.
In other local results at the nationals Logan Slee finished top 10 in the under-18, 6 kilometre race.
Another HIBS product, Logan was in the New Zealand under-18 Secondary Schools Cross Country team this year.
Lower Hutt’s Phoebe McKnight was another standout. The Hutt Valley High School 16-year-old was way too dominant in the 4 kilometre under-18 women’s race, coming home in 14m 34s - almost 40 seconds clear of the next runner.