Intensity rises as champs loom

As we get to the business end of the season the number competing and the intensity of performance rises. By the time this is published Whanganui Girls College and Cullinane College will have had their schools championships, Whanganui High School hold their championships today and Whanganui Collegiate hold the annual Inter House Match on Saturday evening.

The Peter Snell meeting is at Cooks Gardens on Saturday, March 2, and the Whanganui Schools Championships is only three weeks away. Cooks Gardens enters the busy season.

Added to this is the New Zealand Track and Field Championships in Christchurch which starts in 15 days.

Tuesday saw the biggest club night in terms of numbers this year when 48 runners faced the starter in the popular 2km road race, and there were eight heats in the 60m.

There was also a small group of athletes competing in the middle week of the Manawatu/Whanganui Centre Championships in Palmerston North, where Genna Maples jumped a pleasing 5.54m in the long jump and her brother Jonathan ran a best over 400m hurdles, upsetting the in-form Connor Munro. Sophie Redmayne is also putting a couple of mishaps over 300m hurdles behind her, stopping the clock at 47.59 — her best on the Massey Community track.

At Cooks Gardens the C programme with its odd distances was well used by athletes. Tayla Brunger ran in the 60m, 150m and the 300m (the last two were only 10 minutes apart) making club night a highly specific sprint training session. She should be delighted that all three were very close to her personal bests.

Liam Back and Andres Hernandez used the 2km road race as an exercise to see how relaxed they could remain and were rewarded with good times.

Back — clearly recovered from injury — was just outside his best and Hernandez ran a best providing confirmation of his form. In the same road race NZ champs-bound Ashleigh Alabaster (Steeplechase and 3000m) ran a personal best 6:51.37 and her teammate Ana Brabyn (800m) also ran a best 6:52.41. Marseille Bowie sliced 9s off her best to record 7:00.31.

Later Back set the pace in the 600m with a fast 400m lap to bring Joseph Sinclair and Travis Bayler through to good times. Sinclair, who runs in the under-20 800m in Christchurch, was only a fraction outside of his best set 10 days before, his New Zealand Schools silver medal (1:23.13), and Bayler, who runs in the under 18s, set a great personal best of 1:24.04. Zach Bellamy (under-18) was third with 1:27.36, also a personal best.

National schools 400m champion and schools international Emma Osborne won the girls 600m in a personal best 1:41.49, with Christchurch-bound 1500m runner Sarah Lambert in second with a best 1:44.10.

Promising Cullinane athlete Tadhg O’Conner was back in action sprinting. He is likely to be a major player in the intermediate grade at Whanganui Secondary Schools on Wednesday, March 13.

German exchange student Karl Loeb (Whanganui High School) again looked good and his versatility will prove useful at Whanganui Schools where he is expected to be prominent in the intermediate grade.

The 2 x 100m relay was well supported when 22 pairs ran in the final event. The relay provides good work for pairs within a 4 x 100m team.

Samoan Semi Vonoses and Tongan Sione Osamu combined for the first time and could be a valuable combination in the Collegiate senior team. They headed off teammates Melville Su and Logan Henry.

In the girls Cassie Glentworth and Georgia Forrester combined well to win over teammates Charlotte Baker and Maggie Smith, suggesting Whanganui High School will be strong in the intermediate grades.

The forthcoming local school championships will provide many new faces who will gain selection for their respective schools at the Whanganui Secondary Schools Championships on Wednesday, March 13.

Others will appear as representatives of a Whanganui Schools Team in a match run with the Sir Peter Snell meeting on Saturday, March 2. Other younger athletes have a chance to run at the meet in the junior Swedish Relay at the same meeting.

By Alex McNab
Athletic Insight
Whanganui Chronicle 21/2/19


(*) Last Reviewed: February 21, 2019

This post is over a year old. Some of the information this contains may be outdated.

Please email the office if you think this information requires review.