ATHLETICS - Northland stars shine at nationals

NORTHLAND athletes returned to the northern gloom after recording a number of bright results, including several top 10 finishes, at the New Zealand Secondary School athletics nationals at Wanganui over the weekend.
There was a good turnout for the nationals, with more than 1500 students attending the competition at the traditional home of New Zealand athletics - the Cooks Gardens track.
The highlight of the meeting for the small group of Northern athletes was the performance of Mahurangi College's Kimberly Burke, who won the junior 3000m in a sensational time of 10 minutes 32.61 seconds.
It was fantastic performance by the emerging star, who is a triathlete first and foremost, and who capped off a tiring but successful weekend with a second place in the 1500m, in a time of 4m:36s.
Burke beat Melissa Simpson in the final but the Kerikeri High School student's sixth place, in a time of 4m:50.47s, was not a bad effort after she too competed in the 800m heats and semifinals over the weekend.
Whangarei Girls' High School's Joeline Marks put in a good performance in the sprints after struggling with a foot injury in recent weeks. Marks finished seventh in both the senior 100m and 200m.
Kamo High School's Simone Ackermann finished seventh in the senior girls' 3000m in a time of 10m:45s, while WBHS's Ryan Smith finished eighth in the senior boys' 2000m steeplechase in 6m 40s.
Smith was unlucky to lose his footing at the first water jump and took a fall that knocked him off his rhythm for the rest of the race.
Springbank School's Peter Ralph was another to taste a podium finish with a third in the senior boys' pole vault. With a vault of 3.3m, he beat fellow Springbank student Caleb Cookson, who finished sixth-equal after he successfully recorded a vault of 2.6m.
Kerikeri High School's Sam Watson was the other senior competitor and he made the quarterfinal of the hotly contested 100m competition, finally finishing in 25th place, with a time of 11.78s.
Watson's junior schoolmate Josh Aird also made the quarterfinal of the 100m with a time of 12.23s and his long jump of 5.17m saw him gain 30th place.
One of the best performances of the weekend among Northland's junior athletes was by Dargaville College's Demi Exley.
The junior athlete made the final of the 800m after twice setting personal bests in the heats and in the semifinals. She finished sixth in the finals with a time of 2m:22.8s.
Another Dargaville athlete, Haley Gilchrist, missed out on making the semifinal of the 80m hurdles by just a 10th of a second.
The Northland athletes will now turn their attention to the Northland team trials at the Kamo Recreation Grounds on December 15.
The region's selectors will choose a team for the under-15 and under-18 interprovincials early next year.