Paine grabs gold with stunning performance

Gary Caffell
Conserving energy in her heat proved a huge factor in the stunning gold medal-winning performance by Masterton Intermediate student Stevie Paine in the girls 13yrs 800m at the Pacific School Games which drew to a conclusion in Canberra, Australia over the weekend.
Paine, 13, was under instructions from her Masterton-based coach Mark Harris to qualify for the final by the easiest possible means and she carried out the plan to perfection, finishing a comfortable but close second behind New South Wales Anna Laman in 2mins 19.29secs.
Come the final and it was a very different Paine who approached the starting line.
Determined to dominate what was a classy line-up she left nothing to chance, something evidenced by her time of 2mins 14secs, a personal best by all of 4secs and 2secs inside the qualifying time for the world youth championships, in which she is too young to compete.
She had 10 metres to spare at the finish from Anna McCormack of Australian Capital Territories who clocked 2.15.97 with Courtney Chamberlain of New South Wales third in 2.16.10.
Laman was sixth in 2.19.29, a classic illustration of the improvement left in Paine between heat and final.
Coach Harris admitted to be somewhat at a lost for words when texted by Paine with news of her victory.
"Realistically we always thought a top three placing was a possibility but to win so easily in that sort of time & no,we weren't expecting that," he said.
For Paine it was the second time she had won a medal at the Pacific School Games but the colour was more exciting this time round. As a 10-year-old she was a silver medallist in the 880m,
And, not surprisingly, the huge effort took its toll on her when she contested the girls 13yrs 1500m where she finished ninth in 4mins 49secs, 12secs outside her personal best time.
Stevie Paine's gold medal effort was not, however, to be the only memorable success for that family at the Pacific School Games.
Her older sister Vicky Paine, 17, also returned home with a gold medal after having been part of a New Zealand girls 17yrs 4 x 400m relay team which won that title with a truly stunning performance.
Their time of 3mins 48.85secs is not only a New Zealand record for the 17yrs age group but for the 18yrs and 19yrs age groups well. The previous record for the 19yrs division was 3mins 50secs and had stood since 1979.
Angela Smit of Christchurch ran the first leg for the Kiwis, followed by Paine, Katherine Camp of Auckland and Abbe Watson of Christchurch.
Vicky Paine had earlier just failed to qualify for the final of the girls 17yrs individual 400m event finishing third in her heat in the excellent time of 57.82secs.
She has already had a huge 2008-09 season, having won two silver medals at the Oceania track and field championships in Fiji.
Five other Wairarapa athletes also competed with distinction at the Pacific School Games.
Ellen Schaef did marvellously well to finish fourth in the girls 18-19yrs 400m in 59secs and her New Zealand 4 by 400m relay team placed fourth as well.
Chris Girling-McLean was sixth in his heat of the boys 17yrs 400m in 51.67secs and was a member of the Kiwi team which placed fourth in the final of the 4 x 400m relay in the same age group.
April Campbell is a relative newcomer to hurdling and turning a very encouraging effort to place fourth in her heat of the girls 90m hurdles, just 0.2secs from the winner.
Zac Sinclair might have tailed the small field home when placing fourth in the boys 18-19years 5km walk in a time of 34mins but considering his preparation was hampered by injury his was a gutsy display.
Courtnay Fafeita contested a number of field events in the girls 15yrs division.
She was eighth in the discus with a throw of 36.80m, 10th in the hammer throw with a throw of 32m and 18th in the shot put with a put of 9.77m.
The sole Wairarapa representative in the New Zealand swimming team was Isaac Foote and he too did himself proud.
Not all his results have been confirmed but it is understood he was 15th fastest in the boys 15yrs100m butterfly with a time of 1min 2.8secs, sixth in the 200m 15-16yrs breaststroke in 2mins 33.39secs, 10th in the 15-16yrs 200m butterfly in 2mins 15.74secs and sixth in the 15yrs 200m individual medley in 2mins 18.72secs.