Hermann, stepping down a distance or two from his preferred 400m, finished ahead of his training partner Bayly and was rewarded with a PB of 12.18s and added a new best over 200m of 24.50s to finish second.
In the evening session, Hermann ran the 400m leg of a mixed 4x400m club event, combining with Whanganui Collegiate School teammates and 1500m runners Oliver Jones, Rosa Meyer and Greta Darke to finish third.
Late withdrawals through sickness and family events meant that Whanganui Collegiate School were unable to defend the Dick Quax Team Trophy for the 1500m.
Running on his own, Oliver Jones finished a highly creditable fourth, shaving another couple of seconds off his PB over 1500m as he finished in 4m 26.13s.
The girls’ team finished second to Auckland’s Baradene College in the Dianne Rodger girls’ team race over 1500m.
Rosa Meyer, recovering from injury and Covid-19, was first home in fifth with a season’s best of 4m 57.47s and should be encouraged by finishing six seconds faster than in the same race last year.
Greta Darke, in seventh position, set a PB but will be frustrated by finishing so close to breaking five minutes, stopping the clock at 5m 00.47s.
Darke’s sister Tilly, still in year 10, was two places further back breaking her own best by 20 seconds to finish in 5m 09.82s, demonstrating her immense potential. The non-scorer Hannah Byam in 13th position also set a PB.
Daniel Sinclair ran in the men’s permit 1500m and took a major step towards defending his New Zealand Under-20 title.
Sinclair ran to his pre-race schedule of 62-second laps and was not phased by the fact that he was in 18th in the large elite field of 21 at the end of the first lap.
He moved up the field, sticking to his time schedule hitting the 1200m mark at 3m 6s.
His good finish brought him up to seventh in a race won by the in-form Sam Tanner, who generously helped the whole field by leading from the start.
Sinclair’s previous best was 3m 51.70s, set when he won the Under-20 title last March in a performance that beat George Beamish’s Whanganui Collegiate record, set in 2014.
Sinclair’s Hamilton performance of 3m 47.38s was inside the demanding World Junior qualifying mark of 3m 48.00s, which was bettered in Hamilton by four athletes after an outstanding race.
Only a second separated all four, headed by New Zealand Schools champion Daniel Prescott and closely followed by James Mora, Sinclair and George Wyllie. And with only two able to compete in August’s World Juniors, it added spice to the New Zealand Under-20 1500m race next month in Wellington.
The first week of the Manawatū/Whanganui Championships was held at Cooks Gardens, combined with the weekly club night, with the second week in Palmerston North next week under a similar arrangement.
There was a disappointing response from Manawatū athletes, with visitors well down on recent years.
Jonathan Maples won the 100m in 11.47s into a 4.6m/s headwind.
He followed this up with a PB as he won the 400m in 50.30s, suggesting that better will soon follow.
Juliet McKinlay won both the women’s 100m and triple jump on the eve of her departure for the New Zealand combined Events Championships in Dunedin.
Presley Bretherton won the men’s triple jump.
Greta Darke looked good in her first steeplechase of 2024, winning in 7m 30.13s while teammate Oliver Jones won the men’s race.
Daniel Sinclair cruised to the 1500m title with Emma Verry (Palmerston North) taking the women’s (4m 56.83s). Ngā Tawa student Luella Lilly took the shot with a PB of 11.96m.
