College Sports: Concentrate, pedal - and ignore pain

By JENNY RUTHERFORD

Fierce concentration, split-second timing, rock-steady nerves and a high pain threshold are among the qualities required to succeed at the North Island secondary school cycling championships on Sunday.

Bleeding limbs are commonplace in the sport and organisers will have an ambulance and two doctors on stand-by to treat the race wounds expected at Ngaruawahia.

Most of the 315 competitors were unaccustomed to mass starts, race organiser John Young said, and lacked concentration - which led to riders coming off.

Auckland secondary schools Epsom Girls Grammar, Diocesan and Auckland Grammar are expected to field top teams and will be tough to beat in the morning teams time trial.

Auckland Grammar has a clutch of stars in the under-19 boys, including nationally acclaimed riders Michael Frankovich, Andrew Small, William Thompson and Troy Klink.

Havelock High School's Peter Cooke, the defending champion, and Dean Whitehead of Te Awamutu College are expected to push hard for a medal over the 51km individual race.

Titleholder Jade Gilbertson from Epsom Girls should be too strong for her opposition in the under-19 girls 38km race. The under-16, under-15 and under-14 sections are tipped to be close and hard fought races.

RUGBY LEAGUE

Marcellin College will be taking nothing for granted against St Paul's College in the final of the Stephen Kearney Cup at Carlaw Park tonight.

Marcellin, the defending senior 1st XIII champions, have progressed through to the final unbeaten.

Mt Albert Grammar teams take on St Paul's in the under-15 nine-a-side Graham Lowe Cup and Aorere College in the College A finals.

The premier 1st XIII final between St Paul's and Mt Albert Grammar has been deferred until July 24 because St Paul's are playing the Australian Nutri-Grain Cup on Friday night.


VOLLEYBALL

The North Islanders were unstoppable as the boys and girls teams reigned supreme in the transtasman secondary school quadrangular tournament in Tauranga. The North Islanders progressed unbeaten against top opposition from the South Island, New South Wales and Queensland.

The boys, led by Massey Satiu from Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate in Otara, beat Queensland 3-1 in the final and the girls swept past the South Island to win their final 3-0.

The New Zealand selection teams, made up mainly of the champion North Islanders, were too strong for the combined Australian sides.

The boys and girls each beat their rivals 3-0.

AREA TOURNAMENT

The Northland Area schools squad will be embarking on more than just a 1000km-plus journey to Dunedin for the New Zealand Area Schools tournament that starts on July 1.

For some in the squad it will be a journey into the unknown.

Some students in the 44-member squad have never been past Auckland, and know nothing about the biting cold of the lower South Island in winter.

Regional secondary school commitments have ruled some students out of the big trip, so the Northland team will not be as strong as first hoped.

Northland have entered boys rugby, girls and boys basketball, volleyball and girls netball teams.

NETBALL

Today's combined points tournament at the Windmill Rd courts offers Auckland secondary school teams a chance to assess their form ahead of the North Island secondary school championships.

Seventy-two teams from Whangarei to Te Awamutu will attend.

THIS WEEK

TODAY

Northland: soccer.

Thames Valley: badminton.

Bay of Plenty: junior indoor rock-climbing, Rotorua.

Intercity boys hockey.

Counties Manukau: netball.

Auckland: rugby league finals night, secondary schools netball combined points tournament. Tomorrow: Intercity girls hockey.

FRIDAY:

Auckland: badminton.

SATURDAY

Waikato: rugby, soccer.

Northland: rugby.

Auckland: rugby, soccer.

Counties Manukau: rugby.

North Harbour: rugby, netball.

SUNDAY

North Island secondary schools cycling championships, Ngaruawahia.

MONDAY

New Zealand Area Schools tournament, Dunedin, July 1-5.

New Zealand junior rugby, Wanganui, July 1-3.

North Island secondary school provincial A tournament, Taumaranui July 1-6.

Monday: Rugby: New Zealand Area Schools competition, Dunedin (until Friday); national junior competition, Wanganui (until Wednesday).

North Island secondary school provincial A tournament, Taumarunui (until Saturday).