THE North Island Secondary Schools Track and Field Championships in Auckland at the weekend was a breakthrough for Collegiate triple jumper Roimata Hipango.
Hipango has been threatening to break into National rankings throughout the past month and at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland she opened the competition with a personal best of 11.18m and produced three other jumps beyond her previous best, winning the competition with an 11.30m jump that places her 2nd in the National rankings.
Hipango also finished 4th in the Long Jump with a 5.20m personal best, which rounded off an excellent meeting for the Collegiate Club Captain and also ran the anchor leg for the Wanganui Senior Girls' 4 x 100m team (Lulu Kelly, Myah Jex-Blake and Kitty Cleary) that finished second. The changeovers were smooth which helped as the team lacked top-ranked sprinters. Myah Jex-Blake has been injured for the past fortnight, after a basketball ankle injury. She bravely ran the back-straight leg but was unable to start in the 300m hurdles the next morning, an event she had every right to expect a medal in.
The other break-through performance came from Harry Symes. Symes had run a personal best for 4th place in the NZ Youth 200m earlier in the month and recent training had suggested that he had every chance of success stepping up to 400m, following his impressive 50.65s in late February. He stopped the clock at 49.71s for his first sub-50s one lap. He finished 3rd, losing the silver medal by 100th of a second. Symes also ran the anchor leg for the winning 4 x 100m Boys' team, where the Collegiate School quartet (Sam Merson, James Davis and Stephen Perofeta) demonstrated outstanding baton work to win in 44.22s. This team, as well as anchor runner Symes, looks set for further improvement later in the year.
Symes also finished 4th in the 200m after long delays at the start with protests. Symes seemed phased by what was happening and had a poor start. The smoothness of the heat was gone, but he was rewarded with a personal best 22.60s narrowly missing out on a medal. Symes also ran in the 4 x 400m which finished 3rd. The team was Harry Symes, Luke Gemmell, Tate Harte and Connor McErlich. Although the time was not fast, the inexperienced first-time runners all showed determination and potential and will strive to emulate the team of 2014.