Emma Osborne, the standout of the Whanganui athletes at the Australian All Schools Champs

Emma Osborne, the standout of the Whanganui athletes in the New Zealand team at the Australian All Schools Championships in Cairns.

It may have been two steps down on the podium, but step up in performance when Whanganui athlete Emma Osborne claimed bronze in the under-18 girls 400m at the Australian all Schools Championships in Cairns at the weekend.

The 16-year-old Year 11 Wanganui Collegiate runner had won gold at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships over the same distance 10 days ago in Dunedin.

In Cairns, Osborne ran her first sub 56 second 400m clocking 55.58 to take bronze in a strong under 18 field and ironically at a meet dogged by tropical rain in Northern Queensland.

Coach Alec McNab praised his young protege for running nearly a second faster than her New Zealand Schools gold medal winning time a fortnight ago.

"It may have been a step down on the podium for Emma in Cairns, but definitely a step up in performance," McNab said.

"She was clearly the athlete of the meet of the Whanganui contingent. The manner in which she did it was impressive. This took over a second off both her heat time of 56.84 and almost a second off her personal best of 56.57."

An hour later Osborne ran a storming 400m anchor leg to bring her team from fourth to silver medal in the Swedish Relay. The Swedish 1000m sprint relay is an event that constitutes a 100m dash followed by 300m, 200m then a 400m final leg.

Three of the team were Wanganui Collegiate athletes. Genna Maples ran the opening 100m handing over to Tayla Brunger for the 300m leg with Annalies Kalma from St Peter's in Cambridge running the 200m. The 400m anchor leg was, of course, run by Osborne.

Osborne had a lot of ground to make up. After 300m she had moved her team into bronze position but still had a sizeable distance to make up. A strong run in the home straight brought the New Zealand team to second and within a second of the winning Queensland team.

"Nobody had a clock on Emma during her anchor leg, but the way the race was run and the way she came home strongly suggest it could well have been a 54 second performance," McNab said.

"There is now real depth to the New Zealand girls 400m event and Emma and Tayla are two in a wider squad we are looking at for the under 20 4x400m relay team in the next couple of years.

"Emma also ran in the 800m in Cairns winning the second seeded final handsomely. Unfortunately, in Australia they have timed heats from which seeded final fields are drawn. So unfortunately Emma didn't get the chance to run against the top seeds. If she had she would have been a real chance of a medal. Emma has real potential a s two lap (800m) runner, but that is something she will need to decide to do.

"I think she can take confidence from her performances in Cairns and progress in the future," McNab said.