Talented athlete nabs haul of medals

Havelock North High 4 x 100m junior relay gold-winning team Sophia Peterson (left), Emily Young, Georgia Rathbone and Georgia Hulls in Wanganui at the weekend. Photo / Supplied

All the medal-winning Hawke's Bay secondary schools' athletes deserve recognition but coaches and observers agree one of them, Georgia Hulls, blew spectators away at the nationals in Wanganui at the weekend.

Hulls, a Havelock North High School student, clinched gold medals in the junior 100m, 200m and 4 x 100m relay.

"The real story of the day was when she ran the fourth leg of the 4 x100m relay," an email from her school said.

Geoff Morrison and school principal Greg Fenton said they had "never seen anything so astounding" as the spectators rose to give her a standing ovation.

"Apparently she came back from behind in what looked like an impossible distance to catch up and pass [ the rivals] with mere metres left to run," the email outlined of the annual meeting held at Cooks Gardens from last Friday.

Hockey coach and Hastings Boys' High School sports co-ordinator Dean Hulls coaches daughter Georgia who got silver in the 4 x 400m.

"By the end of the weekend there was no one at the ground who was not aware of Georgia Hulls," Napier coach Mick Cull said, adding Hulls is due for higher honours perhaps at the World Youth Championship in July next year in South America.

"Georgia's times were superior to those achieved in the senior girls' events," Cull said.

The Napier Girls' High pair of Holly Manning and Shannon Gearey also turned heads.

Manning won the senior girls' 800m 0.6s shy of the record. The Stoney Brooke University-bound runner became the first athlete from the Bay to claim the title since Ashley Aitken.

"Holly won the event going away from her opponents and seems to thrive on her front-running style," Cull said of the Sheila Smidt-coached Manning.

Gearey won her fifth consecutive national title in winning the 400m in 55.9s.

It was her third NZSS title in the event. She has also won her last two NZ Open Champs and boasts the top five best times for her age group nationally.

Megan Kikachi, of Birkenhead College, pushed Gearey to clock 56.15s.

Cull-coached Gearey and Manning helped NGHS win bronze in the 4 x 400m relay and the former anchored the 4 x 100 team of Josie Mason, Josie Minor and Briana Stephenson to silver in 49.32s. Minor joined Roisin Pearson to win bronze in the 4 x 400m in 4.04m.

Smidt said Pearson was "the unluckiest" athlete after stumbling 3m from the finish in third spot of the senior girls' 1500m race to finish fifth.

Stephenson won silvers in the long and high jumps.

Lindisfarne College's Kaleb Wright won silver in the junior boys' 800m and also competed in the demanding 1500m.

"The 800 was a tactical and slow race. His time of 2:02.46 was down on what he ran in the heats," Cull said.

He singled out his athlete, Logan Teao-Carroll, of Tamatea High, in the junior boys' 100m and 200m races.

"Logan managed to make the 200 final in only his second visit to these champs," he said of the runner "caught" turning to his right in one of his 100m races.

When Cull questioned the teenager on the tactics, Teao-Caroll quipped: "I've seen Usain Bolt do it and I thought it was cool."

Teao-Carroll was Tamatea High's sportsman of the year this year and the only competitor at the secondary schools champs at the weekend.