Alec McNab: Whanganui athletes punch above their weight

Jonathan Maples is the New Zealand 400 metres hurdle champion.

As the curtain falls on the New Zealand track and field season, Whanganui athletes can look back and reflect that although it was not a vintage year Whanganui still clearly punched above our weight.

Over the next three weeks I will reflect on the season with the above thought in mind and at the same time acknowledging the hard work of so many that made a hugely demanding season possible.

Since January, over and above the 10 weekly club nights and seven children’s Mondays, the club hosted the Colgate Games at the start of the year, the Pak’nSave Cooks Classic and Sir Peter Snell Challenge at the end of January, the New Zealand Masters a week later and the New Zealand Combined Events (Decathlon and Heptathlon) Championships at the end of February.

Cooks Gardens was also the venue for local schools, the Whanganui Secondary Schools Championships and the Manawatū/Whanganui Championships, all confirming how lucky we are to have a world-class facility right in the heart of the city, playing a major role in the success of Whanganui athletes.

The Athletics New Zealand Championships, the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships and the North and South Island Secondary Schools Championships all carry championship status and additional value.

Secondary school athletes have the three championships while senior athletes only have the one and thus the classic Open meets carry greater significance. Our young pre-secondary school athletes have the popular Colgate Games.

At the New Zealand Track and Field Championships in Wellington, Whanganui athletes won six gold medals, four silver and one bronze, and shared in three relay medals.

Two of the golds went to senior men. Jonathan Maples retained his 400 metres hurdles title with a significantly-improved performance and Lucas Martin won the 10,000m race walk, adding to his gold in the Under-20 3000m walk.

Martin chose to enter as a senior in the longer walk and was rewarded with a win and a massive personal best.

Maples also ran in his first national sprint final in the 200m and was in the silver medal-winning Manawatū/Whanganui 4x100 relay team.

Maples has made a major step this year, despite being based with the Air Force in Blenheim without an all-weather track to train on.

Younger Whanganui athletes won a further three gold medals: Daniel Sinclair in the under 20 men’s 1500 metres, Maggie Jones in the Under-20 heptathlon (a week earlier at Cooks Gardens) and Juliet McKinlay in the triple jump (McKinlay is a Palmerston North Club athlete but as a Whanganui Collegiate athlete trains at Cooks Gardens). Jones and Paige Cromarty joined the Collette twins from Palmerston North to win the Under-20 4x100 race.

Other medals came with silver to Hannah Byam (Under-16 steeplechase), Juliet McKinlay (Under-16 long jump) and Maggie Jones in both the Under-20 100m and 400m hurdles (Byam and McKinlay also won a bronze medal in the Under-16 4x100 relay). McKinlay added a bronze in the 80m hurdles with Cromarty and Jones ran in the bronze medal Under-20 4x400 team.

Three athletes missed the championships with Covid and with the very talented Nat Kirk injured, this total might have been higher.

At the North Island Championships, Whanganui is the second-smallest of the 11 regions competing, both in terms of population and contributing schools (Whanganui has only eight, whereas Waikato/Bay of Plenty has over 70).

At the North Island Secondary Schools Championships, Whanganui won three gold medals (Daniel Sinclair senior 3000m and steeplechase) and Louise Brabyn the senior 2000m steeplechase.

Silver medals were won by Juliet McKinlay 80m hurdles (wrongly recorded as a bronze last week), Toby Caro in the senior 2000m steeplechase and Hannah Byam in the junior steeplechase. Bronze medals were won by Rosa Meyer (senior 3000m), David Sinclair (junior boys 1500m), Isla Jones (junior high jump) and McKinlay in the intermediate 300m hurdles, with the senior boys taking third in the 4x400 relay.

Back in December at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships in Inglewood, where athletes compete for their individual schools, Maggie Jones (Whanganui High School) won both the 100m hurdles and 300m hurdles and Louise Brabyn won the 2000m steeplechase.

Silver medals were won by Lucas Martin (3000m race walk) and Juliet McKinlay (Collegiate) in the junior triple jump with Nat Kirk (High School) taking bronze in the senior javelin. The High School mixed 4x400 relay took silver and Collegiate bronze.

The Collegiate junior boys’ team won the bronze medal in the junior 4x400 and the Whanganui Collegiate senior girls’ road race team took silver. Mason Pye (High School) won three silver and a bronze in para events.

Whanganui athletes are truly punching well above their weight.