Athletics Insight: Whanganui athletes head to national track and field champs in Dunedin

Whanganui's Jonathan Maples has posted New Zealand's three fastest 400m hurdles times this summer.

Six Whanganui athletes will travel to Dunedin to join more than 700 others from throughout New Zealand competing at the Jennian Homes Athletics New Zealand Track and Field Championships this weekend.

The group may be smaller than usual but there is genuine quality and podium potential among the athletes who will compete as part of the 35-strong Manawatū/Whanganui Centre (MWA) team.

Jonathan Maples has the strongest credentials of the Whanganui team members. He won back-to-back 400m senior hurdle titles in 2022 and 2023 but, after injury, had to settle for silver last year. Maples returned from surgery just after Christmas and missed a further week of training in early February but travels south in excellent shape following solid competition and training performances.

Maples, who won the Pak’nSave Cooks Classic 400m hurdles by some margin in January, has posted the three fastest times this summer but is aware that in an event as technical as hurdling a lot can go wrong. Recent training has demonstrated considerable success in altering his stride pattern but “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”.

The four-day programme works well for Maples as his major event (400m hurdles) is on Friday (Day 2) which allows him to concentrate on the 400m the next day with a morning heat and, hopefully, a final in the afternoon. Maples, following his 47.57s one lap at the Potts Classic, sits fourth in the rankings. He is scheduled to run the 200m on Sunday, an event in which he will hope for a new personal best and a berth in the final.

Twenty-year-old race walker Lucas Martin has accumulated 12 New Zealand walk medals on the road and track over recent years and has set four age group road walk records. Martin, now studying engineering at Canterbury University, will compete in the 10,000m and 3000m walks. He ranks second in both.

Damian Hodgson, who in December won the New Zealand Secondary Schools 300m hurdles in Timaru, steps up to 400m hurdles where he is ranked second to Aucklander Noah Retford who finished third in Timaru. Harry Williamson from Canterbury was second in Timaru and ranks third over the longer distance which all three have entered. Hodgson has prepared well and should relish the close competition. Hodgson also runs in the 400m and, like Maples, the programme has been kind to him, allowing him to search for a new one-lap personal best after his main event.

It is wonderful to see Emma Osborne back running after a horrific leg fracture at the 2023 New Zealand Track and Field Championships. Osborne, 22, has shown courage and tenacity to return to the sport and the trip south is another step towards full recovery.

It is not surprising that 16-year-old Juliet McKinlay has entered five events in Dunedin which is part of her preparation for the Combined Events Championships in Auckland on March 22-23.

Heptathletes, although all-rounders, should excel in individual events. McKinlay, a Palmerston North athlete who as a Whanganui Collegiate student divides her training between Cooks Gardens and the Massey Community Track, has performed well nationally in individual events. As a first-year senior girl at the New Zealand Secondary Schools in Timaru, McKinlay took bronze in 100m hurdles and javelin and, along with some outstanding performances in the Classic series, earned a place in the New Zealand Secondary Schools team to California. McKinlay competes in the under-18 100m hurdles, javelin, shot, long and triple jumps this weekend.

Augus Thongskul (under-18 long jump and 100m) and Lucas Howard (under-18 300m hurdles and 200m) are the other two Whanganui competitors who should gain invaluable experience from the trip south.

Whanganui has seen a growth in club night participants. However, the cost has certainly contributed to the lower-than-usual number of Whanganui entries for the championships.

Younger athletes have faced several journeys south in the past 16 months. The New Zealand Secondary Schools in December 2023 were in Christchurch and last December they were in Timaru. The Schools Cross Country last June was in Christchurch. Travel, especially south of Dunedin, comes at a price and I sympathise with athletes from southern regions who so frequently face these high travel costs. This cost is compounded for many of our stronger younger athletes who, through their birthdate, have just entered the first of two years in a new grade and have another opportunity next year at the top of an age grade.

I look forward to a great championship that I will report on next week.