Athletics: Whanganui middle distance runners in line for Toby Bowyer Trophy

Jonathan Maples won the New Zealand senior 400m hurdles after a season interrupted by injury. Photo / Supplied

It has been award season in the entertainment business and, as summer sports end, many codes have their own award ceremonies at the close of the season.

Athletics Whanganui has no such award ceremony as there is only one award given each year and that is the Toby Bowyer Trophy. This was presented by the late Kevin Ross to recognise his former coach Bowyer who also coached so many other outstanding athletes. The award goes to our leading middle-distance runner. This decision is made by the committee and will probably be presented on the evening of the AGM early next month.

All awards, whether they be from the entertainment world such as the Oscars or Grammys or in sport such as the ISPS Halberg Awards, invariably provide controversy. Having sat on committees that make such decisions, I can vouch for the fact that the task can be daunting.

Comparisons between differing genres in movies, or between different sports, present a whole range of variables and problems for any panel. Even within middle-distance running, we have to compare a wide range of events from 800 metres to 5000 metres, including cross country and steeplechase. Track and field itself has so many disciplines within the sport to consider, let alone trying to compare track and field with slopestyle snowboard at the Winter Olympics. Comparison of gender provides yet another complication that can be avoided when there are male and female award categories but not when it comes to a supreme award.

Our committee will make the decision regarding the Bowyer Award. I will provide data information on the leading candidates. Consideration has to be taken of performances in major competition as well as the personal bests of candidates. As I said last week, comparative tables help in athletics but it is not the whole story.

We have four leading candidates for the Bowyer Trophy and the following data will be presented to the committee.

Maggie Jones with her 400m hurdles gold medal. Photo / Supplied

Last year's winner was race walker Lucas Martin who has had few competitive outings this season. Both New Zealand and North Island Schools were cancelled. Martin was unable to compete at the Athletics New Zealand Championships and thus unable to post a performance in a major championship.

Daniel Sinclair was in a similar position but did win Whanganui Schools and posted a late-season 1500m time that places him second on the New Zealand under-18 rankings. He scored the highest male point score across all disciplines on the comparative tables.

Sinclair's cousin James Hercus finished sixth at the New Zealand Championships in the under-18 grade in a strong 800m field. Toby Caro has set personal bests all season and his 3000m time is better than Sinclair's but that was only good enough for 11th in a stacked under-18 New Zealand field. Caro has another year in the grade.

The final candidate is Louise Brabyn who won the New Zealand under-18 steeplechase, an event in which she tops the New Zealand under-18 rankings. She was also third in the 3000m at the same championships. Brabyn has the second-best comparative score of all athletes across all events and genders with her excellent late-season 1500m performance.

Previous Bowyer winners include Christian Conder, who went on to a USA scholarship in Florida and Liam Back, now based at Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Back became New Zealand's most recent sub-4-minute miler earlier this month with his 3:59.06 performance just three months after his 20th birthday – no pressure on the 2021-2022 winner following the committee deliberation next week.

Although we have no other awards, I will risk naming my leading female and male club athletes, carefully avoiding naming a supreme winner to allow readers to make their own choice.

Brabyn's two national medals (gold and bronze) need to be compared with Maggie Jones' golds (400m hurdles and heptathlon) and silver over 100m hurdles. Paige Cromarty (under-20 400m hurdles) was our only other national medal winner. Comparative scores give Jones a slender lead over Brabyn (930 – 923) and her medal performances leave me in little doubt that Jones was our leading female athlete.

In the men's, Sinclair has the best score in comparative tables with 870 points, four points ahead of Jonathan Maples. Maples, however, won the New Zealand senior 400m hurdles despite a hugely injury-interrupted season. Our other male medal winners were Flynn Johnston (under-20 400m hurdles) and Jacky Dai (under-20 triple jump) with respective silver and bronze medals. Both scored significantly fewer points in comparison with Maples and Sinclair. Jonathan Maples gets my nod as our leading male athlete.

Next week I will conclude my review of the season.