St Joseph’s, the winners of the A-grade event and Forbes Cup. Dannevirke South placed second and Huia Range came third. Photo / Dave Murdoch
After it was postponed due to weather, the historic Forbes and Tippett relays were held at the Dannevirke Domain between the town’s four schools - Dannevirke South, Huia Range, St Joseph’s and Ruahine.
This contest has been running since 1953, and race organiser Kelly Gillard told the competitors at the pre-race briefing some of their grandfathers and grandmothers probably competed back then.
A light misty drizzle began at the start of racing but did not appear to affect the competitors – there being no slipping and no baton dropping.
Huia Range set the tone in the B-grade girls’ category, winning comfortably with a time of one minute for the 400m relay, just a smidgeon outside the 2019 record.
With the drizzle abating, racing continued, with Ruahine also winning the B-grade boys’ relay comfortably, but when it came to the A-grade event, the finishes had the crowd in an uproar, with the winners being just 1m ahead of second place, Maisie Wren bringing the baton home for St Joseph’s in the girls’ final and Will Hogan doing the same for Ruahine in the boys’ final.
Relays are a four-person team effort, however, and all celebrated the successes, which were shared fairly evenly across all the schools.
As usual, the Dannevirke Athletics Club ran the meet without a hitch. It’s great to keep these traditions alive.
Dave Murdoch is a part-time photojournalist based in Dannevirke. He has covered any community story relaying good news about the district for the last 10 years.
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