The final regional meet, a fortnight before the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships in Timaru, provides an invaluable competition for athletes heading south in early December, especially important for current Whanganui athletes with Cooks Gardens’ temporary closure.
The league, however, provides much more with good competition for athletes of all ages and abilities.
Saturday saw 400 recorded performances through the whole range of athletics disciplines.
The male team finished third only a few points shy of a higher placing but the small female team of five athletes struggled ending up in sixth position.
Jonathan Maples made his first appearance in the league following a hamstring niggle in late October.
Maples impressed in the 400 metres winning with a respectable 49.05 marginally outside his personal best set just a week before his injury.
Maples should be encouraged by his performance as the strong headwind on the back straight was not helpful for one-lap athletes.
Maples backed this with a similar time for his anchor leg in the 4 x 400 metres when he overhauled the Palmerston North team and closed significantly on event winner Kāpiti–Ti–Mana.
Whanganui had real depth in the 400s with Thomas Gowan finishing third with a personal best 52.13 and Oliver Toohey drawn outside him finishing fourth with 52.16 seconds, also a personal best.
The two will renew their rivalry when they compete for their respective Whanganui High and Whanganui Collegiate School teams in Timaru.
Both have the potential to reach the senior boys final in the 400m in the South Island.
Toohey backed his run up with a second place in the javelin (38.53) while Gowan ran a personal best 23.51 seconds for 200m finishing 10th of the 22 200 metre runners.
Damian Hodgson looked good in the 300m hurdles winning by a wide margin with a personal best 39.56 seconds that bodes well for Timaru.
He backed this up with a fifth in the 200m coming home very strongly recording a personal best 22.83.
In the hurdles, his younger Whanganui High School teammate James McGregor was second (leading under 16) in a personal best 43.18 seconds providing a New Zealand Schools confidence boost for this promising athlete.
Hannah Byam had an outstanding afternoon setting personal bests over the 2000m Steeplechase (7:22.87) taking over three seconds off her time set in the Palmerston North Meeting.
Fifteen-year-old Byam will be running in the Junior Grade in Timaru and was the fastest Junior in Wellington.
Byam also set a personal best in the 300m hurdles when she finished third in 47.68, nearly half a second faster than her previous best.
Grace Fannin was second in that 300m hurdle race (48.93) and but for a falter at the penultimate hurdle would certainly have been inside her personal best.
Earlier Fannin took almost a second off her 80m hurdle time winning in 13.14 seconds.
Fannin also ran a brave anchor leg in the third-placed 4 x 400 team.
Club captain and New Zealand race walker Lucas Martin finished second to the in-form Toby O‘Rorke (Taranaki) in the 3000m walk but put disappointment behind him and set about scoring points for his team in a real captain’s knock winning the 400m hurdles, running in the 2000m steeplechase, jumped in the high jump and threw a javelin – a fine example of the spirit of the regional league.
Also in the spirit of the league was the participation of five young Chilean overseas students at Whanganui Collegiate School on a short two-term visit.
They had a go at a variety of events and combined to have a Chilean Whanganui B 4 x 100 team finishing fourth, one place behind the Whanganui A team (all Whanganui High School).
Emilio Galan was the most successful of the five with his seventh place in the high jump.
Next week I will preview Whanganui athletes competing at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships which will see 1100 athletes in action in Timaru.
