CROSS-COUNTRY - Best-run event in North

Muddy feet, cheering groups of kids and showers of rain could only mean one thing at Barge Park on Friday - the Whangarei Primary School Sports Association's cross-country championships.
Representatives from schools throughout the region were in action and Whangarei Primary School teacher Peter Hensen said this year had been one of the better cross-country events he had seen in his 10 years of attending.
The event was organised for the association by members of the NorthTec Sports and Recreation Course. They acted as marshalls after marking out the course and arranging the positions of each school's tents.
"They've done a really awesome job. In the past there have been parking hassles and problems where the tents have gone and, while there have been a few moans today about children getting to the line too early, I think that's important because in the past we've had kids missing events because they didn't hear the race call," Hensen said.
Last Friday's event acted as a test for the 25 or so members from the first or second year or one-year diploma students - comprising a good chunk of the marks for their event management paper.
Asked why cross-country remains so popular for primary school children, Hensen answered: "It's one of those traditions really. I've questioned it at times but it is a tradition and for me the buzz is seeing the children who don't achieve that well academically, excelling in something like this.
"Also there is the camaraderie, the way that the children support each other coming over the line, it doesn't matter whether they're first or second or 100th, they still support each other and that's an important thing for anybody to learn," he said.
"For our kids, it's fun to come up and see children that that they were racing for the last three or four years in a row from other schools and they renew their friendships and their rivalries as they come through."
The competitors all ended up enjoying the day.
A very tired Hayden Tyrrell from Hurupaki Primary School said he hadn't run as fast as he had expected and had just been able to hold off his challengers along the home straight to win the Year 6 boys' race.
"It was only a few split seconds in the end," he said. "It was probably the hills, it was muddier than I thought it would be."
Whangarei Intermediate's Ashley Randell said that, after leading the race from start to finish, she was fit from playing other sports but had fitted in a bit of extra training for the event.
"I've been training a lot at the moment. I'm going to rep hockey twice a week and I do normal hockey twice a week as well."