Athletics Insight: Whanganui athletes set for North Island schools competition

Whanganui student Juliet McKinlay in action in the heptathlon at the Athletics New Zealand Combined Events Championships. Photo / MT Sports Photography

The North Island Secondary Schools Track and Field Championships at Porritt Stadium in Hamilton will bring the curtain down on the domestic athletics season.

The North Island Schools Championships provide an opportunity for young athletes to represent their district as opposed to individual school representation at the New Zealand Secondary Schools or for their clubs or centres at the Athletics New Zealand Track and Field Championships.

This provides an entry to the sport that would not be available to students new to the sport or if they attend a school that does not send athletes to the New Zealand Schools Championships in December or are not regular club members.

This opportunity has given a taste of athletics to many who have gone on to excel in other codes. The recent Whanganui Schools Championships was the start of this journey for many.

Whanganui has a generous selection policy that allows any winner at the Whanganui Schools Championships a berth in the team regardless of their ability. Some, knowing the guideline standard, choose not to avail themselves of the opportunity while others have attended and, although at the back of the field on debut, have gone on to succeed in later years. I think back immediately to Martin Holmes and Marguerite Ritchie (nee Couchman), both at the tail of the field at their first North Island and who went on to wear the black singlet in later years.

Other athletes who finished in the top three at our championships and reached the standard were added to the team. A special case made for four athletes in the intermediate boys 300m hurdles was accepted.

The cancellation of many field events because of the onset of driving rain midway through the Whanganui Schools Championships did set selection challenges. Athletes who missed their events were invited to trial at events added to Club Night last week and we were delighted that so many took this opportunity, including athletes from beyond the metropolitan area. It is pleasing that all eight contributing schools have representatives in the 53-strong team.

Many of the inexperienced Whanganui team look likely to make an impact in Hamilton this weekend.

Among the Whanganui team are recent medal winners from New Zealand championships in March (Athletics New Zealand) and December (New Zealand Secondary Schools) and strong finalists from both meets.

The medal winners are Auguz Thongskul (Whanganui High School) in the long jump with a bronze in March and a fourth place in December. Hannah Byam (Whanganui Collegiate School) took silver in the steeplechase in December. Both athletes excelled at the Whanganui Secondary Schools Championships.

Finalists include hurdlers Grace Fannin (Whanganui Girls College), James McGregor, Alex Payne and Luke Howard (Whanganui High School) and triple jumper Lulu Dufty (Whanganui High School). Kaylee Bischoff (Whanganui High School) has returned to the sport and defends her intermediate girls 80m hurdle title won last year in Palmerston North.

Unfortunately, two leading Whanganui athletes are not available for this year’s North Island Secondary Schools Championships. The leading junior girl from the Whanganui Championships, Jamie Munro (Whanganui High School), who won the 100m/200m double at the Whanganui Schools Championships and the 80m hurdles and the long jump before weather intervened, has unavoidable family commitments that weekend. However, she can look to four more years of North Island Schools and an exciting future in the sport.

The other is Year 12 Whanganui Collegiate heptathlete Juliet McKinlay. McKinlay flies out to California next week as part of the small New Zealand Secondary Schools team competing in a short California tour.

The feature event for McKinlay will be the heptathlon at the Arcadia Meeting.

McKinlay received the perfect confidence boost for Arcadia when she took heptathlon under-18 gold at the Athletics New Zealand Combined Events Championships in Auckland a fortnight ago. McKinlay was second in the competition behind a German exchange student who was awarded a visitor’s medal.

In a strong field of 14, including athletes from four countries, McKinlay surpassed her previous best (a Whanganui Collegiate School record) by 622 points, ending with 4905 points. She set personal bests in six of the seven events. The only event in which she did not set a new best was javelin where she threw a calendar year best of 40.49m, only her second throw over 40m.

McKinlay follows in the footsteps of other young Whanganui athletes who have competed in the excellent California meets. They include Lexi Maples who finished seventh in 2017 in the heptathlon and Max Attwell, sixth in the 2014 Arcadia Meet which was the start of a distinguished career.