WHS Girls team third in annual Anzac Day Relays

The field sorts itself out at the start of the men's relay at the annual Wanganui Harrier Club Anzac Day meet at Lakelands. 
PHOTO / Tanysha-Rochelle Jones

While the host has yet again played second fiddle in the annual Wanganui Harrier Club Anzac Relays, perennial winners Palmerston North Athletic Harriers Club has been knocked off it perch in the men's section.

Run on a loop circuit at Lakelands adjacent to Lake Wiritoa on Anzac Day, the Feilding Moa women and the Hawera Harrier men's teams won their respective grades.

For the past five or six years Palmerston North Harriers had dominted the men's section, but this season were beaten into fourth place with Feilding Moa (second) and Egmont Athletics (third) ahead of them. There was, however, just over a second separating first place to fourth.

Egmont Athletics women finished second in the women's section mainly on the strength of classy runner Hannah O'Connor. The Taranaki middle-distance athlete easily won the Phillips Electrical 3000m women's under-20 event at the Cooks Classic in January.

Whanganui High School's girls team claimed third at Scoutlands and that team features the nationally-ranked Rebecca Baker, her sister Charlotte, promising hurdler Paris Munro and Jemma Tan.

Hosts Wanganui Harriers Club struggled to put competitive teams together in the older grades finishing 9th and 10th respectively in the women and men's divisions.

The Wanganui Harrier Club walkers, however, won their event.

Full results can be viewed by visiting this link http://wanganuiharrierclub.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2019/04/ANZAC-Relay-Results-2019.pdf

By Iain Hyndman
Whanganui Chronicle 2/5/19