Te Puke athletes' Colgate Games success

The four members of Te Puke Athletics Club who competed at the Colgate Games earlier this month. From left, Cooper Hogan, 10, Te Koha Kete-Kawhena, 11, Kayden Theron, 13, and Nathan Theron, 11.

Te Puke Athletics & Harriers Club had four athletes travel to compete at the Colgate Games in Wellington earlier this month.

The Colgate Games are held annually and are the biggest athletics event for children aged 7 to 14 years old. Hundreds of New Zealand's finest young athletes attend.

Our athletes Te Koha Kete-Kawhena, Cooper Hogan, Nathan Theron and Kayden Theron certainly did themselves and the club proud.

Events at the games have entries of 50 athletes or more, so to reach finals is an
achievement in itself.

Te Koha had an exceptional weekend in the 11-year-old grade, competing in five events, finishing in the top two in four of them, each with a personal best.

She won the 100m in 13.09 secs and won the long jump with a 4.42m effort.

She was second in the 200m sprint in 27.82 secs and the shot put with a throw of 11.39m. She finished ninth in the discuss.

Cooper who competed in the 10-year grade also had a great weekend. He qualified for the final of the 1500m event with a personal best time of 5m42s.

His 800m heat was also a personal best, 2m47s, and his final of 2m52s gave him 11th and 10th in the two events respectively.

Nathan also qualified for the finals for the 11-year-olds in the 1500m and 800m with personal bests of 5m03s and 2m32s respectively, placing fifth for both events.

Older brother Kayden qualified for the 13-year-old 1500m with his best ever time of 4m43s and the 800m with a personal best of 2m22s. In the finals he took bronze in the 800m and was fifth in the 1500m.

These three boys ran very well and, while their sprint speed is not up to that of some of the top competitors, over a longer distance such as 3km they are very fast.

These four athletes competed so well and made their families, club and coaches very proud.

So much work and effort goes into our kids by mainly volunteers in all sports and without these people nothing would happen.

Thank you to all volunteers everywhere.

Te Puke Athletics and Harrier Club started the 2021-22 season with over 100 registrations, it is awe inspiring to see so many kids participating in field events, sprints and middle distance running of 800m and 1500m.

Many thanks go to club president and event manager Paulette Oldeman and the committee for all the work that goes on behind the scenes to co-ordinate the smooth running of all our club events.

The club is looking forward to starting the new year at 5.30pm on February 9 at Litt Park.

There is also an opportunity to attend ribbon day for the children's seven to 14-year-old age group at the Waikato/BoP athletics championships in March.

If you would like to know more about local athletics and harrier running for all ages call me, Selwyn, on 0272518779 for further information. We do have a special year round training programme for youngsters.