Athletics: Whanganui athletes zooming through Covid challenges

Maggie Jones heads the female points table and overall ranking for the season. Photo / Supplied

The pandemic has led to a whole new vocabulary. We have learned about alert levels, lockdowns and now traffic lights. Zoom to me involved speed and zooming was moving fast or the act of using a zoom lens.

This is not an easy time for event organisers, both sporting and entertainment. They have had to adapt to many changes and be prepared for a complete change of plan as they meet the ever-changing landscape of, at times, confusing Covid requirements. They have also learned that Zoom in these Covid days has a very different meaning with innumerable Zoom meetings, often convened at very short notice.

The second round of the annual regional meeting is to be held at the weekend in Palmerston North.

The meet, the largest of three, has traditionally alternated between Whanganui and Palmerston North. Last year nearly 300 athletes were at the second round at Cooks Gardens. It is clear that under present alert level 2 requirements, in terms of maximum numbers, a normal meeting would not be feasible at the Palmerston North Massey track.

The problem has been resolved by one meet becoming four meetings.

The throwers will be in Wellington, with three sections at Palmerston North. A short middle distance meet starts at 9.50am with an 800m followed by a 3000/5000 metre run and walk, and ending just after 11am with a 1500m. This does not cater for middle distance doubles, but it does give good competition.

This distance meet will be followed by a sprints and hurdles meet at 11.40am, which ends by 1.15pm. The final meet is a jumps meet at 1.45pm.

The arrangements are complex and took considerable Zoom time but the outcome has been creative and solution-based that hopefully will enable athletes to compete.

Palmerston North will be another welcome opportunity for our athletes, with almost 40 taking part in one of the four aforementioned sections. This is another opportunity to make a further claim and improved performance for the leading male and female athletes for the points trophy outlined in last week's Insight.

Maggie Jones leads the female and overall ranking. I apologise for adding a year to her age. Jones is still 17, not 18 as stated - which makes her performances more significant.

Her 860 points after her 15.30 100m hurdles holds a one-point advantage over 15-year-old Bella Willis, who recorded 59.64 for 400m at Inglewood. Mackenzie Morgan is third (4:49.33 1500m for 842 points) and young distance-runner Louise Brabyn is fourth after her personal best 3000m last Tuesday (10:26.48 gaining 835 points). Jones and Willis are yet to reach their personal bests as it is early season and both can look for significant improvement in the near future.

The male points lead is held by Jonathan Maples with his recent Club Night 100m in 11.26 scoring 811 points. Maples will miss Saturday in Palmerston North as the regional meet dates were changed and he is unfortunately unavailable.

Schools Cross Country international Daniel Sinclair is in second and is the leading school-aged athlete. Sinclair has set a string of middle distance bests with his 1500m of 4:05.54 the highest point scorer at 789 points. Sinclair is hoping for a competitive 1500m on Saturday as all his races have been done basically solo.

Nat Kirk is in third (110m hurdles 16.13) scoring 716 points, two more than Jacky Dai in his long jump. Both the events that scored for Kirk and Dai are not their major events and both look towards significant progress before the competition closes on December 4.

The athletes will hope for more favourable conditions in Palmerston North at the weekend than what was experienced at Tuesday's Club Night.

A heavy, gnarly shower just before the start left a sodden track. The rain did ease and the all-weather track proved its value but because of the drop in temperature some athletes voted with their feet or modified their programmes. The clearance heralded by a spectacular rainbow lifted spirits and performances.

Jonathan Maples looked good over 60m and 150m, and Nat Kirk and Bella Willis demonstrated they are coming into form with slick 300m (37.93 and 43.51 respectively). Maggie Jones ran well against the boys in the 60m.

The 2000m road race produced a raft of impressive performances with eight of the nine recording personal bests and the ninth was only two seconds shy of her best. Daniel Sinclair took 20 seconds off his best to win in 5:44.84. Elliot Jones took 18s off his best, his brother Oliver 13s, Greta Darke 16s and Olivia Gilbertson 26s.

That is what I call zooming.