College Sport: Marathon effort to make pole vault

By JENNI RUTHERFORD

Joshua Woodman's first major achievement in the national secondary schools athletics championships was getting to the event.

The 18-year-old's triumph in the pole vault came after a marathon road and air journey that finished early on Saturday, hours before he competed.

He was to have flown directly from Kerikeri to Dunedin. But when bad weather forced the cancellation of the flight, he and his father made the bus trip to Auckland in the hope of making the last flight to Dunedin from Auckland airport.

But, they could only get to Christchurch and finished their 1700km journey by rental car.

Despite the weariness of the trip, Woodman won the open boys event with a 4.40m effort, 10cm short of the record former international Paul Gibbons of Howick College set in 1989.

James Dolphin, of Long Bay College, was another who impressed, winning the senior boys' 100m in 10.8s.

He was 0.08s from qualifying for the world junior athletics championships in Jamaica next year.

Rebecca McEnaney of Rangitoto College broke the senior girls' 800m record with a time of 2m 08.68s.

Hers was among the five records set over the weekend. The others included two efforts by Valerie Adams of Southern Cross Campus. She broke her own shot put mark by 59cm with her last throw of 16.02m, and set a hammer record of 54.15m, nearly 8m better than the previous best.

BOWLS

More than 90 competitors will be at the Wanganui bowling greens from Sunday in the national secondary school pairs and singles championships.

The Auckland region's hopes rest on Marny Jones from Kaipara College, who is expected to make it to the championship round in the girls' singles. Ben Thompson of Wesley College should also be among those in the final rounds in the boys' singles.

CRICKET

Kelston Boys High will go where no West Auckland school has gone before - the Gillette Cup finals.

Kelston triumphed when the much-delayed zone final was finally played, beating Whangarei Boys High by 67 runs.

Previously, St Kentigern College, King's College or Auckland Grammar have carried the region's hopes.

Wellington College, Otago Boys High and St Paul's Collegiate, Hamilton, fill the other three spots in the top-four national finals.Epsom Girls Grammar is the Auckland representative for the girls' Yoplait Cup and will also compete for top honours in Palmerston North.

* The Auckland secondary school cricket executive committee found there was no evidence that the first-round match between Avondale College and King's College in the fourth term was fixed.

Kelston Boys High principal Stephen Watt complained to the committee that he had reason to believe the teams had jacked up the result. But the executive were satisfied that Avondale's early declaration and Kings' forfeiture of its first innings was a consequence of two teams looking to play positive cricket after losing time because of rain on the first day of play.