Wairarapa mud run to test TeenAg grit

Toni Cottle, Wairarapa College TeenAg club chair and deputy head girl, is hoping a Mudrun fundraiser at Wainuioru this weekend will help raise a significant amount of money. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

True grit and "togetherness" will be tested at a Wairarapa College charity event this weekend to help Rathkeale College students travel to the national TeenAg showdown in Timaru.

Toni Cottle, Wairarapa College TeenAg club chairwoman and deputy head girl, said the club will host a Mudrun at Ngahere Station at Wanuioru on Sunday to raise funds for the WaiCol group and for Rathkeale College TeenAg club founders Callum, 16, and Archie Woodhouse, 14.

The brothers successfully competed at the East Coast regional TeenAg contest at Dannevirke in March, qualifying in their section for the national finals in Timaru alongside 12-year-old fellow national finalists from Tinui School Georgia Higinbottom, Maddie Taylor and Samantha Marriott, who compete as the NZ Farm Girls team.

The East Coast regional TeenAg contest paces the New Zealand Young Farmers competition and drew school teams from an area extending along the east coast from Gisborne in the north to Wairarapa in the south.

The Tinui School team took a hard-fought victory from a field of 45 other school teams at the regional finals and the Woodhouse brothers finished at the head of a field of 30 teams during competition based on agricultural skills and knowledge.

Miss Cottle said the mud run comprises a 3km course littered with obstacles, dams and loads of mud and raising funds for the Woodhouse brothers to travel to the South Island finals was "part of the spirit of togetherness" fostered through TeenAg and New Zealand Young Farmers.

The mud run had already attracted more than 100 entrants, she said.

There were thousands of dollars in prizes up for grabs, Miss Cottle said, and she was hoping the event will raise a significant amount of money for the pair of student clubs.