Winners on and off field

It wasn't only the remarkable number of medals won by their 35-strong team that saw Wairarapa grab the limelight at the North Island secondary schools track and field championships at Tauranga last weekend.

They also came up trumps around the conference table, being chosen to host the 2013 and 2014 editions of an event that attracts up to 600 competitors.

Masterton-based track coach Mark Harris said the construction of the all-weather track at the Colin Pugh Sports Bowl inspired Wairarapa's application to stage the championships and they had received strong support from schools from all over the North Island keen to try out the new facility.

"I think we can say it was a popular choice. There's been a lot of good feedback about what is happening here," he said, adding it was customary for the same centre to be awarded the championships for two successive years.

Wairarapa came away from Tauranga with four gold medals, two of them to Alex Fafeita who won the senior boys shot put and open boys hammer throw titles. Others went to Alison Andrews-Paul in the intermediate girls 800m and Finn Yeats in the junior boys high jump.

There were also silver medals for Connor Henare (intermediate boys triple jump) and Toyah Churton (junior girls triple jump) as well as Fafeita (discus) and Andrews-Paul (1500m) and bronze medals to Lisa Makaohi (junior girls discus), Sian Chapman (intermediate girls 100m) and the senior boys 4x100m relay team.

The successes of Yeats, Henare and Churton were seen by Harris as further evidence of the considerable amount of untapped potential Wairarapa has in jumps; something he is keen to see enhanced by the availability of expert coaching in that domain.

"There is plenty of raw talent about and you have to wonder how far they could go with specialised coaching," he said. "If anybody is able to offer something in that area we'd love to hear from them."

Harris also had a special word of praise for the senior boys 4x100m relay team of Alex Howden, Xavier McCluskey, Dhruv Raman and Raymond Andrews-Paul, who went into their event as outsiders only to finish third in 44.46secs.

"They exceeded expectations, nobody could have imagined them doing so well."