Young Wānaka athletes finished the competitive season on a high, winning multiple medals and achieving personal bests at last weekend’s (31 March - 2 April) South Island Secondary School athletics championships.

In sometimes wet and windy conditions at Surrey Park’s all-weather track in Invercargill, the team of 12 athletes from the Aspiring Athletics Club (AAC) performed particularly well, achieving 15 individual placings of sixth or better, including four golds, one silver and three bronze medals.

The prestigious 4x100m and 4x400m relays are always hard fought and the girls under 19 teams excelled winning gold in both events. Chantel Thurston, Millie East and Phoebe Laker ran in both relays and were joined by Niamh Townsend in the 4x100m and Amaya East in the 4x400m.

Another standout performance came from 14-years old Phoebe Laker in her individual girls under 14 sprints as she dominated her age group winning gold in both the 100m and 400m, “underlining her sprinting prowess and versatility”, an AAC senior coach said. 

Phoebe won the 400m (59.59s) by a substantial 3.2s margin, and was faster than the winners of the girls U15 and U16 400m races.

For a relatively young team (Years 11-12), the boys U19 4x100m relay team of Lachlan Hay, Matthew Botting, Ryan Enoka and Cody Armstrong also performed well just missing out on a podium finish (fourth).

At just 16 years old and a relative novice to competitive athletics, Cody also notched up a bronze medal and a new personal best time (52.61s) in the boys U19 individual 400m, and his 11.93m jump scored fourth placing in the boys U19 triple jump in which class mate and friendly rival Matthew Botting jumped fifth with 11.42m. 

Also achieving new PBs were Pippa Raffills and Chantel Thurston; Year 13 student Pippa achieved PBs in both the girls U19 400m (65.62s) and triple jump (9.90m) to place fifth in both events.

Year 11 student Chantel achieved a PB of 2:31.65s when she ran third in the girls U16 800m and Amaya East ran very close to her personal best to earn a bronze with 2:26.06 in the girls U15 800m.

In her final year at secondary school, Billie Crowe achieved a seasonal best time of 2:19.03 to take home a silver medal in the girls U19 800m and ran a respectable fourth placing in the 1500m.

Other AAC athletes to perform well in individual events were Niamh Townsend and Millie East who ran fourth and fifth respectively in an exceptionally tight finish for third in the girls U19 100m, missing out by only 0.06s and 0.16s respectively.

Eleven of the 12 AAC athletes at this meet were Mount Aspiring College students; the 12th club member was Billie Crowe who attends St Hilda’s College in Dunedin.

AAC committee chair Kirsten Wyatt congratulated the athletes for their achievements adding, as this meet completes the summer competition programme, the club “wishes everyone a well earned rest”. 

The NZ Secondary School championships will be held in early December at the Nga Puna Wai track in Christchurch at the start of 2023/24 season.

PHOTO: Supplied