Later in the afternoon Brabyn joined Tayla Brunger, Emma Osborne and Genna Maples to take the Intermediate Girls 4x100m title. At breakfast the following morning the novice 1500 metre runner had to check with family how many laps she had to run that morning in the 1500m. She clearly kept count but almost left her sprint too late closing to take third on the line by hundredths of a second.
Her time of 4:57.38 was a 19 second personal best. Ana Brabyn is clearly an athlete to watch.
Jonathan Maples (Whanganui High School), so long in the shadow of his older sister Lexi and his younger sister Genna, ran an outstanding 300m hurdles final to win his first major title.
Maples has battled injury and at times self- confidence. He came home well running hard off the final hurdle having nearly lost the race at hurdle 1 which he had to take on the wrong foot. From then, he established excellent rhythm.
Maples can go into next season with a new confidence and a good winter could see more success next season.
Connor Munro (WHS) was third across the line in the race but will take second as the second runner was former Whanganui athlete Richmond Wells who will receive a visitors certificate.
Connor Munro's sister Paris (WHS) took the 70m hurdles with school team mate Casie Glentworth in second position. Both athletes have shown good improvement in hurdles.
Isabel Brabyn (Collegiate) took another hurdle medal in the 300m hurdles in the Intermediate Girls.
Glentworth, along with WHS team mates Maggie Jones and Charlotte Baker with Sophie Williams (Collegiate) running the first leg came, second in the 4x100m Junior Girls Relay.
Earlier on the Saturday Williams had been given the same time as the winner in the 100m, but had to settle for second as the photograph showed a .02 second difference at the finish. Williams went on to take second in the 200m.
Whanganui gained further relay success in the Intermediate Girls, with gold in the 4x100m (mentioned earlier in the article) and gold in the 4x400m Senior Girls highlighted last week. The other podium finishes came in the Senior Boys 4x400m when Joseph Sinclair, Jack Gay (Collegiate), Travis Bayler and Connor Munro (WHS) took third.
Whanganui steeplechasers did well with Caitlyn Alabaster taking first in the Senior Girls, her sister Ashleigh third in the inaugural under 16 race, Collegiate team mates Zach Bellamy and George Lambert took second and third respectively in the Intermediate boys inaugural race.
Earlier in the meeting Lambert's sister Sarah was second in the 3000m in Senior Girls.
Sophie Andrews was rewarded for her diligent training by finishing second in the Intermediate Shot (12.52 personal best) and fourth in the Hammer an event in which she held an early lead.
All throws had big fields and have obviously been enthused by Tom Walsh, Dame Valerie Adams and now Julia Ratcliffe.,
Whanganui's other podium places came from Olivia Seymour (Collegiate) who came of age as a sprinter and finally was able to show the promise in training in competition. Seymour was second in the Senior Girls 200m and third over 200m.
Seymour, on consecutive years, just missed the 100m Senior Girls final at New Zealand Schools and should be heartened by the results. Her aunt Michelle still holds the New Zealand women's 100m record so she has the genes for further progress.
Next week I will look back over the successful 2017 -2018 season.