Athletics News
Waikato Bay of Plenty Athletic Championships
Records fell and John Walker’s shoes found a new owner and home at the recent Waikato Bay of Plenty Secondary School Athletic Championships.
For a team of just 29 athletes St Paul’s Collegiate school managed 28 podium finishes with 16 of our athletes qualifying to compete in the North Island Secondary School Championships to be held in Wellington.
The highlight of the meet was the win by Michael Eggleton, in the 1500m, of the prestigious John Walker Trophy, the shoes worn by John Walker when the world record for the mile in Goteborg, Sweden was broken in 1975. Michael says he "ran with gaining the trophy as his goal" and it is now proudly on display at St Paul's Collegiate School in Hamilton.
Michael also broke the 800m senior boys' record running 1.53.58 minutes, a record which has been held since 1980. Blake Gordon also from St Paul's Collegiate broke the record for the 200m junior boys in 23.57 seconds, and the 100m in 11.77 seconds both records from 1988.
Over 400 athletes from 71 schools competed in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty Secondary Schools Athletic Championships.
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North Island Secondary School Track adn Field Championships
St Paul’s athletes continued their outstanding season with another quality performance at the North Island Secondary School Track and Field Championships held in Wellington in March.
Our athletes represented the Waikato Bay of Plenty region reflecting they had achieved a top three placing at our School championships, then at Zones and at the Waikato Bay of Plenty Championships. St Paul’s had its largest representation in recent years of 15 athletes in the team.
Highlights for the team over the weekend included:
Blake Gordon
1st in the Junior Boys 200m in 23.01 seconds (record),
1st in the 100m
2nd second placing in the Discus.
Cameron French
1st in the 300m hurdles, an event where is victory by five hundredths of a second enabled him to defend his title.
Jonty Rae
Intermediate Boys 400m title in 51.01 seconds
Bennet Rogers
Intermediate Boys 400m ran a personal best of 52.83 seconds to place third – an outstanding time for a Year 10 student.
Sarah McCallum
2nd placing in the Senior Girls 200m in a slick 25.36 seconds
3rd placing in the Senior Girls 100m.
1st placing in both 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m relay’s.
The last leg of the 4 x 400m relay was an outstanding run as Sarah reacted in emphatic fashion to the pressure from an Auckland athlete over the final 200m.
Such was Sarah’s effort on this last leg she ended up running the fastest split for the team in 58.4 seconds.
Michael Eggleton
2nd placing in the Senior Boys 800m
Michael was up against the top ranked athlete over this distance in the North Island. He ran himself into the ground in a very good tactical approach aimed at breaking his rival over the first 600m. The plan almost paid off with Michael only being caught in the last thirty metres. It required a record breaking performance from his Wanganui rival to beat him.
Sam Hewat
2nd placing in the Senior Boys Triple Jump – off limited jumping preparation, in quite tricky conditions.
Jono Sullivan
2nd Senior Boy’s 400m
The school provided all four runners for the Waikato Bay of Plenty in the Open Boys 4 x 400m relay with Jonty, Michael, Jono and Cameron making up the team. Jonty had the responsibility of running the first leg against much older competitors and he did not let the team down by running a fast leg that saw the team change in first place. Michael, Jono and Cameron then proceeded to build on this lead which saw them easily beat the combined teams of the other regions.
Individual Performances
1 Record
4 Individual titles
5 second place finishers
2 third place finishers
Relays
4 x 100m
3 x 1st
1 x 3rd
4 x 400m
5 x 1st
Ten of the fifteen team members placed in the top 3 of an event.
ZONE ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
St Paul’s athletes performed impressively at the recent Zone Athletics meeting held on Wednesday, 24 February 2010, at Porritt Stadium. The team achieved 20 individual first placings, 12 second placings and six third placings. Even more noteworthy is the fact that three zone records were broken by our athletes, each record having stood for a considerable period of time. Blake Gordon in the Junior Boys' 200m and Michael Eggleton in the Senior Boys' 800m broke records that had stood for 35 years; the record that Jonty Rae claimed in the Intermediate Boys' 400m had only been in existence for a mere 21 years!
A number of athletes, although not breaking records, were also impressive in their performance, achieving more than one win on the day. These athletes include the following:
Junior Boys:
Blake Gordon – 100m, Discus, 4 x 100m
Intermediate Boys:
Aaron Keppler – 100m, 200m, 4 x 100m
James Mason – 1500m, 3000m
Senior Boys:
Cameron French – 200m, 400m, 4 x 100m
Sam Hewat – 100m, Triple Jump, 4 x 100m
Senior Girls:
Emma McCallum – 100m, 200m, High Jump, 4 x 100m
Intermediate Girls:
Ally French – 100m, 200m 4 x 100m (Senior Girls)
Two other notable aspects of the team’s performance on the day were the fact that 33 athletes from a team of 37 qualified to compete at the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Athletics Championships, and the team completed a clean sweep of victories in the four relays in which they were entered.
The following athletes, as well as the athletes previously mentioned, have qualified to compete at the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Athletics Championships:
Junior Boys:
Danyon Fernando, Daniel Goodwin, Stefan Krystman, Tyrell Martin, Daniel Ruri, Todd Barry, Creighton Winiata-Dunster
Intermediate Girls:
Lizzy Rajan
Intermediate Boys:
Ollie Smith, Bennet Rogers, Nikora Payne, Jesse Ruri, Josh Tye, Aaron Crow
Senior Girls:
Sarah McCallum, Stephanie Henley-Smith, Petra Milne
Senior Boys:
Jono Sullivan, Andrew Milne, Glenn Eyers, Andrew Grinter, Daniel O’Rourke, Michael Loft, John Roach, Hadleigh May
National Secondary Schools' Athletics Championships
The annual Secondary School Athletics Championships, held annually in December, attracts up to 1400 athletes, both boys and girls, in junior and senior age groups. The St Paul’s athletics team trained for three months for this event and confidence was high for a good showing in Timaru, where the Championships were held in 2009.
Of the 17 St Paul's athletes that competed at this meet, 14 won medals.