Athletics: Secondary schools’ cross-country provides foundation for future dreams

Former Whanganui athlete Sharon Scott (nee Luff) with some of the para-athletes she works with at Papanui High School.

It is a long way from Whanganui to Lochwinnoch in Renfrewshire, Scotland, where I am writing this week’s Insight.

The New Zealand Secondary Schools Cross Country Championships were only 10 days ago, but it feels so much longer. The long flight gave me time to reflect on those championships.

I re-read the very pertinent comments to athletes made by our patron Barry Magee, an Olympic marathon bronze medal-winner in Rome in 1960 and one of the great Arthur Lydiard-trained athletes. Magee ended his “I have a dream” message by reminding athletes that his best secondary school cross-country result at his own school was 13th, but he was inspired to do better - the rest was history.

He opened his comments by noting that the New Zealand Schools Cross Country was such a tough race to win as it brings together 800 metres, 1500m, 3000m and 5000m runners, not to mention steeplechasers and cross-country specialists, in one hard race. Many of New Zealand’s leading runners over many years have tried and fallen short at the championships.

Whanganui Collegiate’s Daniel Sinclair was determined to step on the top step of the podium but should not feel he failed by finishing second, only five seconds shy of Daniel Prescott for a silver medal. Last year, his Collegiate teammate Amy McHardy took bronze in the senior girls’ race and this year she finished 12th, such was the quality of the field.

With only the top 10 receiving automatic selection for the New Zealand Schools team to travel to Canberra in late August to compete at the Australian Championships, McHardy feared she had missed out. I was able to pass on the good news to her that she had been added to the team, a fact relayed to me by one of her teammates (McHardy had not checked her e-mails). There was sheer delight evident during the WhatsApp call, and I am sure McHardy will successfully seize the opportunity when she joins Sinclair in the New Zealand team.

Magee went on to note that athletes would fight for every place and not give up in giving it their best shot, “knowing that it is how you finish that counts and not how you start”. Rosa Meyer was an excellent example, battling on after falling at the start and reinjuring her ankle. She had expectations of finishing well inside the top 20, but had she not battled on to finish 50th, her Collegiate team would not have taken a silver medal.

A year ago at the championships, Olivia Gilbertson limped home in second-to-last place in the junior girls’ race and, due to her finishing, her team scraped a bronze medal. This year, junior captain Gilbertson finished in 33rd, the third scorer in her Collegiate team, earning a silver medal in both the three and six to score. She had heeded the third piece of Magee’s advice. She did not get “bitter” but was inspired to get “better”.

It is pleasing that athletes who were a little disappointed with their performances, such as New Zealand Schools international Louise Brabyn, are running at the North Island Cross Country this weekend and are preparing for the Athletics New Zealand Championships at the end of July (not bitter, but determined to get better).

Events like the New Zealand Championships always provide welcome reunions with former athletes, and Palmerston North was no exception. Angela Spiers was at Whanganui Collegiate School in the early 1990s, soon after the school became co-educational. It was hard to find runners from a small roll to make up teams, and she was one such athlete. It was good to meet more than two decades later, and even better to hear that her son had finished in the top 10 in the junior boys’ race.

I have also regularly met Sharon Scott (nee Luff), who has, over 15 years, run a programme for para-athletes at Papanui High School. These athletes have performed with distinction and lit up the event with their enthusiasm and pleasure of participation. It is inspirational coaches and organisers like Scott that make our sport.

As a young Whanganui Girls’ College athlete, she was part of a cross-country tour of Whanganui schools to Australia. The tour started in Tasmania, where I have a memory of her at the wheel of a pleasure boat at Launceston. The tour went through Victoria to Canberra and ended in Sydney. The abiding memory for both my wife and myself was a young Sharon on the return flight handing out the pre-landing sweets. She is now inspiring a group of young athletes, handing out advice and inspiration rather than sweets.

Internet willing, as I am travelling to some remote locations, I will be back next week.