Organisers are encouraged by the final response and the more central venue of Hastings in Hawkes Bay next year will undoubtedly see an increase in both number of entries and the number of schools.
Whanganui has 26 athletes competing from three schools and there are a further three athletes from Nga Tawa, who will compete individually and as a three-person senior girls road race team.
Whanganui High School travel south with 14 entries, including entries in four relays in the juniors.
Whanganui Collegiate have 11 athletes in Timaru, including the senior 4x400m relays.
Whanganui Girls’ College are represented by one athlete in hurdler Grace Fannin.
Whanganui athletes have only two returning individual medal winners from last year’s New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships in Christchurch.
The two athletes are Juliet McKinlay (Whanganui Collegiate) and Augus Thongskul (Whanganui High School).
As a junior, McKinlay took gold in the 80m hurdles and backed this up with silver medals in both horizontal jumps.
In June, McKinlay earned her first New Zealand representation at the Oceania Championships in the Under-18 heptathlon.
McKinlay returned with a medal and a whole raft of personal bests.
However, 16-year-old McKinlay, who has just completed her Year 11 studies, competes as a first-year senior with two more New Zealand Schools Championships after this year.
The step up is formidable and her combined events heptathlon is not on the Timaru programme.
McKinlay should be competitive in both jumps and 100m hurdles and has added javelin to the mix, having made great progress in the event in the Oceania heptathlon.
She will be one of the youngest in all her events.
Thongskul was a surprise medal winner on debut in the junior boys long jump last year.
He remains in the juniors this year and has bettered his 2023 medal-winning performance many times this season.
If he can hit rhythm and consistency and remain injury-free, he could again mount the podium in Timaru. Thongskul also starts in the 100m.
Damian Hodgson (Whanganui High School) has been in great form this season, as highlighted recently in this column, with a series of personal bests in 300m hurdles and the 200m.
Hodgson is entered in both and if he can continue his hurdling progress, he could be close to the podium.
Whanganui has had considerable success recently in hurdles, both regionally and nationally.
Hurdling presents logistic problems for club nights but the policy of including a hurdle event every club night, despite the work involved, is paying dividends for Whanganui – and Palmerston North, who have a similar policy.
Grace Fannin is the sole Whanganui Girls’ College representative, and her major event will be the 300m hurdles, in which she hopes to improve on her fourth place from Christchurch last year.
Fannin took silver in the Athletics New Zealand Under-16 championship hurdles in March in Wellington.
James McGregor (Whanganui High School) was also on the Athletics New Zealand podium in the Under-16 300m hurdles with third in the Under-16 grade.
Hannah Byam (Whanganui Collegiate School) was fourth in the junior girls 2000m steeplechase last December.
Byam improved both her time and position by finishing second in the Athletics New Zealand Under-16 steeples in Wellington.
She has further improved her time this new season at the recent Regional League in Wellington.
Byam also starts in the 300m hurdles and could win a berth in the final in her secondary event.
With big entry fields and multiple rounds to negotiate, reaching a final is an achievement.
Whanganui’s 400m runners Thomas Gowan (Whanganui High School – best 52.13s) and Oliver Toohey (Whanganui Collegiate School – best 52.16s) are two such athletes who will be striving to reach the final.
Hayden Stead, Ethan Wells and Lulu Dufty (Whanganui High School) could go deep in their events.
I will report on the championships in next week’s Insight.
