Sprint champion Phoebe Laker successfully defended her sprint title when she set a new personal best (PB) time to win the New Zealand women’s U16 400m at the 2024 national finals last week (March 14-17).

The 15-year-old Te Kura o Tititea Mt Aspiring College (MAC) student not only eclipsed her previous best time by 0.11s but also set new records for Otago women in 15, 16 and 17 age groups.

Given her recent return to competition after an 18-week layoff due to injury, Phoebe did particularly well to retain her national title “in a very tight finish in which she ran to a standstill”, her coach Michael Beable said.  

Her gold medal win was one of several successes for the six Aspiring Athletes Club members who attended the Athletics New Zealand National Track and Field Championships in Wellington.

Former MAC student Niamh Townsend gives it her all in the women’s U20 200m.

Phoebe combined with Niamh Townsend (18) to claim bronze medals in the women’s U20 4x100m relay. Niamh ran the anchor leg and “finished quickly”, making up valuable ground to run the Otago team into third place, Michael said.

Niamh also made the finals of the women’s U20 100m (dead-heating for fifth place) and set a new PB in the finals of the women’s U20 200m.

Also winning medals in the relays was Cody Armstrong (17) who claimed silver with the Otago men’s U20 4x100m and bronze in the men’s U20 4x400m. He also ran in the men’s individual U20 200m and 400m achieving respectable times in his first ever national finals competition.

“[Cody] did a sterling job in anchoring Otago’s M20 4x400m relay team to a bronze medal,” Michael said.

Also attending the nationals for the first time, fellow MAC student Matthew Botting (17) showed a good deal of promise making the final of the men’s U20 Triple Jump, with a PB of 12.46m. 

Cody Armstrong (103) celebrates the silver medal placing in the men’s U20 4x 400m with his Otago teammates.

Having won the Otago senior men’s Triple Jump (TJ) title two weeks ago, Ryan Young also achieved a new PB distance (almost 40cm better than his Otago jump) but had to settle for fourth in his final.

Michael said the competition in the national TJ event was excellent and Ryan performed very well against the “outstanding” Olivier brothers who “will likely go on to the Paris Olympics for NZ”.

Michael said athletes in Wānaka are at a significant disadvantage as, unlike the majority of their competitors, they don't have access to an all-weather track surface for training and competitions.

“They make do with running on a grass surface that also serves many other sports,” he said, and travel when they can to competitions in Dunedin.

“The solution, of course, is an all-weather track surface here in Wānaka.”

There is no town of similar size further away from a synthetic track surface than Wānaka, he added.

MAC students Phoebe Laker, Matthew Botting and Cody Armstrong will now focus on their final competition of the season, the South Island Secondary Schools Athletics Championships, to be held in Timaru on April 6-7, 2024.

PHOTOS: Supplied