Whanganui athletes tantalisingly close
Whanganui athlete and High School student Rebecca Baker (4th outer) looms up to finish second in the women's 1500m in a personal best time at the Regional League final meeting in Masterton at the weekend.
PHOTO / Jo Murray
The Whanganui athletes edged out Palmerston North by 25 points in the final Regional League meeting in Masterton at the weekend but ended up 21 points shy of their Manawatu rivals (551/530)
The Whanganui females were the overall women's division winners, but the club was left tantalisingly close overall and were left ruing the absences of athletes at the first round back in late October.
In the final analysis both Whanganui and Palmerston North were over 100 points ahead of third placed Taranaki in the 15 team contest.
Athletes in Masterton faced all four seasons over the five hours of completion. There was chilly rain, warm sunshine but the one constant was the wind that was directly in the athletes faces on the home straight.
The leading women sprinters faced 3.2metre/second head winds in the 100 metres and almost as strong in the 200 metres.
Genna Maples should therefore be especially pleased with her 25.64-second performance in the latter. Maples ran a superb bend to lead New Zealand junior representative Georgia Hulls into the straight. Hulls prevailed on the straight into the strong wind but Maples had narrowed the gap from a fortnight earlier at Cooks Gardens.
Emma Osborne continued her good run of one lap performances winning the 400 metres in 57.78. Tayla Brunger continued her comeback from injury with a third placing (59.29) and joined fellow NZ Schools representative Grace Godfrey (also on the comeback) in the winning 4x400m. Both athletes should be encouraged by their efforts.
Although the wind dropped a little for the middle distance events where there were many excellent performances headed by the in-form Liam Back. On the evening prior to the meet Back had been named the Whanganui Junior National sportsman of the year at the Ray White Whanganui Sports awards.
Eighteen hours later he broke his own Wanganui Collegiate School under 16 1500 metre record taking another three seconds off his best winning the race with an impressive 4:02.62 performance.
In the women's division Rebecca Baker ran a heady race to take second in a personal best of 4:45.37 to finish second to the older well-performed Tina Faulkener (Scottish). Baker held off the final sprint of a group of chasing athletes to put herself among the leading group chasing the New Zealand Schools junior title in Hastings in just over a week from now.
Sarah Lambert took a whole 13 seconds off her 3000 metre best to take second in 10:44.79. while, both Ashleigh Alabaster and Ethan Gillespie set significant bests in the Steeplechase to finish first and second respectively.
Thirteen-year-old Ana Brabyn took another two seconds off her 800 metre best to clock 2:23.90 for sixth one place behind the aforementioned Baker.
The meet started well for Whanganui athletes taking first and second in the respective male and female 300 metre hurdles. Richmond Wells, in winning the males, ran under 40 seconds for the first time (39.99) with Oliver O'Leary also recording a best.
In the females Sophie Redmayne and Isabel Brabyn both set season bests. On the field Pati Leo, with an excellent series in the Discus, and Lexi Maples in her three throws (Shot, Hammer and Javelin), scored invaluable points for the club and were pick of the group.
On Tuesday evening Maples threw beyond 40 metres in the Hammer for the first time recording a new Collegiate record of 40.22 metres.
Tuesday night saw another competition come to an end with the conclusion of the three week Year 9 and 10 teams competition. Whanganui High School won the final competition in the boy's event winning by two points, but ending up just two points behind Wanganui Collegiate (86:84).
In the Girls events the strong Collegiate teams proved too strong with Collegiate Team Maples winning overall from Collegiate Team Gray (88:72) with Whanganui High School in third with 36 points.
Ethan Cox (High School) impressed in the 100 metres winning in 11.96 with Genna Maples predictably taking the girls in 12,55 with 400 metre Collegiate team mate Tayla Brunger setting a personal best 12.87 in second.
Sophie Andrews (High School) took the Shot with a pleasing 10.60 metre effort. The relay honours were shared with High School winning the boys and Collegiate the girls with a time that was marginally better than their winning performance at New Zealand Schools last year.oliver
In the club programme Travis Bayler ran an excellent personal best in 52.06 with second and third Oliver O'Leary (53.02) and Jack Gay (53.56) also setting bests while Sarah Lambert ran under 5 minutes for the first time with 5:57.41 Jason Daws continued his run of Masters wins in the 800m (2:28.09). Sarah Lambert rounded off a great evening running under five minutes in the 1500 metres for the first time (4:57.14).
By Alex McNab
Wanganui Chronicle 23/11/17