Whangarei teams dominate

Athletics Whangarei teams dominated the annual baton relays at Barge Park on Saturday despite some gallant efforts by Hatea Harriers.
Teams of four contested the relays, with boys and girls under-12s  and under-16s  running 3km; and men, women and masters' grades running 6km.
In the men's relay, LJ Hooker Athletics Whangarei's Rob Lieffering romped away over the first lap, establishing a 2 min 21sec lead over Hatea's Neville Bassett. Junior runner Ryan Slater took over for Whangarei in lap two and, running a fast 21:58s leg, extended his team's lead. In lap three, smooth-striding Ian Calder further extended Whangarei's lead, running 21:18sec for the fastest time on the day, but only by 40sec faster
than Slater. However, Calder is looking to future races, rather than running fast times now.
"I'm running in the Oceania Games on 1 July and this is a part of a build-up for that," he said.
Following Calder's lap, Tom Andrews put in a solid performance on lap four, cementing the win for Whangarei.
In the meantime, Hatea slipped back to third place in the second lap when Richard Blogg, running for the Whangarei's second team, swept past Hatea's hard-running Colin Smith, opening up a gap of 2 min:27sec, which gave the team of Max Smith, Blogg, Max Thomas and Chris Seeley the margin that saw them finishing second, ahead of Hatea's Bassett, Smith, John Kent and Harry Linford, in third place.
Athletics Whangarei women's team - Delwyn Smith, Leigh Ruddock, Janice Powell and Ady Ngawati - had a clear win over Hatea's Judith Bradshaw, Annette Murray, Kim Bassett and Toni Daly, with Ngawati running 23:58 for the fastest women's time, ahead of Estelle Tiller's 28:24 and Powell's 28:50.
Running for Whangarei in the U16 grade, newcomers to the club - James Edwards and Cameron Shelley, both  aged 13  - stood out as rising stars. Shelley finished with the fastest time of 10:22 in the 3km lap, ahead of the well-performed Ethan Carter's 11:05, Travis Connelly's 11:24 and Edwards's 11:57.
But Edwards - who won the junior race in the Boys' High cross-country last week, just one second short of the record and ahead of Shelley in second place - was running cautiously with Thursday's Northland Secondary Schools Cross-Country Championships in mind.
"I was doing it not as hard as the Boys' High cross-country because I want to save myself for Thursday," he said.
Whangarei's number one U16 team (Connelly, Liam Seeley, Edwards and Carter) took first place, ahead of its number two team (Justin Smith, Shelley, Thomas Berry and Tom Dempster).
Ashlee Greenhalgh, Amanda Still, Mandy Edge and Tayla Going won the U16 women's relay for Whangarei, with Still taking fastest time of 12:01.
The boys' U12 year race was largely a family affair with Whangarei's Kieran Ruffell, Elliot Ruffell, Oscar Ruffell and Lochey Harley winning, while the girls' grade was won by a mixed Hatea and Whangarei team, with the help of a few older athletes.