Athletes bring back medals

Northland athletes continue to benefit from top-level competition. At the weekend, they brought home a haul of medals and set new records at the  Auckland Athletics Championships, held at Mt Smart Stadium.
The first day saw three of the  under 16 girls showing fine form and winning two gold medals and a silver.
Fresh from her 1.59m personal best in the W16 High Jump in Auckland the previous week, Riana Phillips recorded a 1.61m jump and then 1.64m to win the competition.
 Rachel Martin picked up the silver medal in the W16 2000m Steeplechase, finishing behind Natasha Bowyer, taking a massive 25 seconds off her  personal best with a new Northland record of 8:14.09.
Melissa Simpson was a comfortable winner in the W16 1500m.
Hayley Gilchrist emulated her training partners Phillips and Martin by improving her own Northland record at the championships. Hayley ran 48.43 to win a competitive W16 300m Hurdles, beating Natalie Booth into second place, with the Waitakere City athlete also running under 50 seconds.
 The other Whangarei athletes taking part in the event all ran in the 800m races.
Ryan Slater reduced his personal best, running 2:01.36 in the heats of the M19 event.
Ethan Carter came close to his  personal best in the final of the M16 event, but was unable to stay with the pace of the leading runners.
Tayla Going made a brave effort  in the W16 final but  finished outside the medal positions.