Athletes from the Aspiring Athletics Club (AAC) travelled to Invercargill recently to compete at the combined Otago Southland Interclub meeting held at the all-weather track at Surrey Park (November 1-2).

The young athletes weren’t deterred from performing well despite the cold and strong winds, AAC senior coach Michael Beable said.

Several posted personal bests (PBs) in the sprints and long jump events, which were all held as mixed-gender events to boost the size of the fields.

However, the wind strength in these events, throughout the whole afternoon, was always over the allowable limit (two metres per second) for record purposes, Michael said.

Sixteen-year-old Phoebe Laker continued the early season form she displayed in her first outing at the Caledonian track in Dunedin on October 11.

“At Invercargill, though, she chose not to run her favoured event, the 400m, because of the difficult blustery winds at Surrey Parks’ track, opting instead for the two shorter sprints.” 

In the main 100m race, Phoebe ran an excellent PB of 12.20s, and was first woman to cross the finish line in the mixed event by a one-second margin.

In the 200m it was a repeat performance: she was the first woman home, but this time clear of the next person by 2.78s. Her 24.61 time was her second fastest ever - just 0.15s off her PB (which she set at the international track meeting in Christchurch in February).

“What made Phoebe’s sprint times more notable was that in the week leading up to the Invercargill meeting she had not been able to do any sprint training at all, especially to work on her acceleration out of the starting blocks and to sharpen her maximal speed,” Michael said, adding that heavy rain in Wānaka in the lead-up week had made the grass track (at Kelly’s Flat) unusable.  

Nonetheless, Lillian Laker (14) showed a clean pair of heels in her 100m heat to win in 13.19s in a PB, by 0.7 seconds. 

Lily Laker training under the watchful eye of her coach.

Her training partner Ruby Swamy (13) was the quickest in her heats for the 60m and 100m races, setting PBs of 8.64s and 13.56s respectively. She also set another PB of 4.77m in the mixed long jump, ahead of all females 18 and under.

“The boys from AAC were equally busy and did just as well,” Michael said. 

Mitchell Roberston (12), set PBs in the 60m (8.77s), the 100m (13.76s), and the long jump (4.71m) in finishing fourth for boys 14 and under. 

Teammate Tibor Boda (14), set PBs in his 100m heat (13.54s), placing third, and in the long jump (4.82m) for fourth place in a mixed event of 15 competitors. He also impressed in his high jump, with an early season clearance of 1.55m for second place, as well as throwing the 1.25kg discus almost 28m. 

The older AAC athletes from Te Kura o Tititea Mount Aspiring College (MAC) will compete at the Otago Inter-club meeting in Dunedin this Saturday (November 15), as part of their final preparation for the NZ Secondary School Championships in Hastings (December 7-9). The girls attending will compete in their best individual events, as well as contest the 4x100m and 4x400m relays.  

Former MAC student Ryan Young (21), who has been completing his final year for a civil engineering degree at Canterbury University, began his competitive season in Christchurch in pleasing fashion, winning the 60m race at Canterbury’s Inter-club competition at the Nga Puna Wai track. 

Matthew Botting will return to Wānaka soon to boost the growing numbers in the senior AAC training, and is expected to achieve PBs in the longer sprints and in the 400m hurdles in his last season in the men’s U20 grade.

PHOTOS: Supplied