Locals grab four gold medals

Wairarapa athletics coach Mark Harris was "blown away" by the success of local competitors at the North Island Colgate Games held in Wanganui over the weekend.
Twelve medals, four of them gold, were achieved despite the fact that many of the Wairarapa athletes were contesting events short of their best distance as part of a deliberate ploy to enhance their speed.
"Fantastic, absolutely fantastic," was Harris's response when reflecting on the end results. "Honestly, they blew me away ... it was pretty amazing stuff!"
Two of the gold medals were won by Stevie Paine, the Masterton youngster who was facing her first serious assignment since winning the 800m in her age group at the Pacific School Games held in Australia late last year.
She won the girls 13yrs 400m in a personal best time of 59.15secs and the 1500m in a slick 4mins 54secs. And she also grabbed a bronze medal in the 200m where her time of 26.62secs was the same allocated to the silver medallist.
April Campbell, fresh from her silver medal in the 80m hurdles at the national secondary schools track and field championships, was on the victory dias in Wanganui in the girls 14yrs 80m hurdles which she won in a personal best time of 12.37secs.
She was a close third in the 100m final in 13.25secs also a personal best-and made the final of the 200m too, placing sixth in 27.57secs.
Alex Faifeta, a gold medal winner in the hammer throw at the national secondary schools championships, took out the boys 13yrs discus title on this occasion with a throw of 43.22m and was third in the shot put with a put of 12.82m.
A personal best time of 61.13secs earned Molly Creagh a bronze medal in the girls 14yrs 400m and Kurtis Paine also managed a PB of 61.96secs when placing second in the boys 12yrs 400m final.
Paine missed a bronze medal by just 0.3secs in the 800m, finishing fourth in 2mins 23secs.
Tom Quinn improved his best time for the 1500m by a staggering 15secs when he placed third in the boys 13yrs final in 4mins 39.54secs. His 400m time of 52.20secs was also a PB and placed him fourth overall.
The relays saw Wairarapa teams win two medals, a silver in the grade 14yrs medley through the combined efforts of Molly Creagh, Stevie Paine, Kurtis Paine, Bevan Brown and Joel Farley and a bronze in the girls 14yrs event where the team consisted of Molly Creagh, Stevie Paine and a couple of 11-year-olds Emma Brown and Alison Andrews-Paul.
Also encouraging for Wairarapa was the prominence of a group of younger athletes in what were laballed pennant events.
Those to play starring roles there included Charlotte Hamill-Harris, Keiran Andrews-Paul.
Mitchell Cockburn, Nathan Whiteman and Stephanie Andrews-Paul.