Impressive medal haul for Wairarapa

Three gold, six silver and five bronze.......that was the magnificent medal haul for Wairarapa clujb members representing the Wellington centre at the national track and field championships held in Auckland from Friday through until Sunday.
The stunning result made last year's excellent medal tally of five medals look positively insignificant and would surely represent Wairarapa's best-ever combined effort at what is the showpiece of the country's track and field calendar.
Ellen Schaef won two of the golds. taking out the women's 19yrs 400m title in 57.46secs after a neck-and-neck battle with a Southland contender and being part of the Wellington centre team which won the women's 4 by 400m relay in her age group. Schaef was first runner off and gave her team a 30m lead which was whittled down to just 5m by the end.She was also in the Welllington combination which placed third in the 4 by 100m relay.
The other gold for Wairarapa went to discus exponent Courtnay Fafeita who won the women's 16yrs title with a throw of 39.65m, all of 5m better than her nearest rival.
Michael Wilson came within a hair's breadth of winning both the men's 19yrs 100m and 200m titles but had to settle for second placing on each occasion. His 100m time was 11.16secs and he recorded a personal best of 21.83secs in the 200m.
Wilson was also part of an all-Wairarapa resident team of William Simpson, Chris Girling-McLean, Corey Casey and Wilson himself which placed second for Wellington -beaten by only 15m- in the men's 19yrs 4 by 400m relay and he and Cameron Sinclair were in the Wellington team which were third in the men's 19yrs 4 by 100m relay, giving Wilson four medals for the meet.
Zac Sinclair was troubled by a hip injury in both his men's 19yrs 3000m and 10,000m walk events and his effort to finish second in the former and third in the latter was a true case of triumph over adversity.He was timed at 15min 59secs over 3000m and 55min 45secs over 10,000m where he was pipped for second by just 10m.
Vicki Paine produced a personal best effort of 57.62secs in placing third in the women's 16yrs 400m and she too was in a titantic struggle for second which she lost by only 0.5secs.Her time was just 0.4secs outside the Wellington record for her age group.Paine was also in the Wellington team which was second in the women's 16yrs 4 by 400m relay, a race in which winners Canterbury set a New Zealand record of 3mins 52secs.Wellington were runners-up in 3mins 56secs.
Cory Casey was placed second in the men's 16yrs 1500m in a personal best time and was also third in the men's 16yrs 800m, a race which saw less than one second seperate the first three placegetters.His time there was a slick 1min 56secs.Casey, who lives in Carterton, currently runs out of a Wellington club but is expected to join up with Team Wairarapa next season.
Corrina Paine made the top 14 of the women's 16yrs 400m with a time of 61secs, Josh Greig placed in the top 12 in both the men's 19yrs discus and shot put events,Renee Braggins was a very creditable seventh in 11min 44secs in the women's 16yrs 3000m and 13-year-old April Campbell confirmed her promise by making the top 16 in the women's 16yrs 100m and the top 12 in the 200m in the same age group.