Rivals on Saturday & teammates on Sunday - June 2016
FRONTRUNNERS: Whanganui athletes Louis Hogan (WHS green on the right) and Christian Conder (WCS blue in the middle) will be rivals on Saturday and teammates on Sunday in Rotorua this weekend, competing in the NZSS Cross Country Champs.
The annual Track and Field Championships (Whanganui hosted the event in 2014) was scheduled for Auckland at Mount Smart Stadium booked for the first weekend of December. However, Coldplay are now playing in Auckland that same weekend and the venue chosen is Mount Smart. NZSSAA have been told they have to find another venue even though a booking was in place. As we will remember from 2014 the Secondary Schools Championships with close on 1500 competitors and many hundreds of supporters attending puts considerable pressure on accommodation in the city and surrounding area.
While a cloud may hang over the summer venue we do know that the winter event, the NZ Schools Cross Country and inaugural Regional Relay, will take place on an exciting course at the Rotorua Agrodome this weekend. At the official close of entries 965 athletes from over 120 schools will face the starter including almost 50 from Whanganui schools.
The main championship will be held on Saturday. The individual championships where athletes are entered by their school and also compete in the team run in conjunction with the individual championship. The local organising committee is headed by Jason Cameron, a former athlete of considerable ability. Cameron has also taken on the task of organising the new Regional Relay (5 x 2km in all three grades for both genders) with enthusiasm. This new concept gives leading runners a second event over the weekend and a chance to run for their school on Saturday and their region the following day.
The new event has almost certainly added three more Whanganui schools to those entering at Rotorua with Cullinane who have two relay representatives on Sunday, likewise Rangitikei College and Nga Tawa and Wanganui Girls College with their relay runners (one from each school) with all four also competing for their schools on the Saturday.
It is pleasing to see a Cross Country revival at Whanganui High School with 16 athletes competing, four of whom will be in the relays on Sunday and a further athlete Flynn Hogan is in reserve. Wanganui Collegiate have the fourth largest entry in Rotorua with 37 athletes (Auckland Grammar School 48, New Plymouth Boys High School 45 and Westlake Boys High School with 38 have the largest teams) and provide 70 percent of the Whanganui relay runners.
The big majority of the athletes including the contingent from Wanganui Collegiate and Whanganui High School are in Rotorua as part of a team striving for team medals.