Athletes' disappointment at the cancellation of the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships have seized the competition opportunities at both club and regional level and look forward to the second modified edition of the Regional League in Palmerston at the end of next week.
I mentioned earlier I offered an additional incentive in the shape of a personal best prize for the opening weeks of the season and a male and female best award to Whanganui Collegiate athletes.
Toby Caro looks unstoppable in the former taking 40 seconds off his 3000 metres best on Tuesday. I have now offered the club similar excellence awards for male and female through to the beginning of January.
Best athlete awards are of course an invitation for debate and at times controversy.
Thankfully the IAAF (now World Athletics) have comparative tables that give point scores for track and field and also allow comparison between events and gender. At this halfway point it is worth looking at who has come out of the blocks fast and is building on their 2020-2021 form, and the "movers and shakers" including any new faces.
Our leading performance statistically last season came from former club member and US-based Geordie Beamish, who on a visit home in summer ran a sub-four-minute on his return to Cooks Gardens in January's New Zealand Mile Championship.
Beamish runs professionally in the US and had a rich vein of good form in late August with two fast miles in consecutive weeks, ending the northern season with a superb 3000 metres in Italy. The comparative points gained in that 3000 metres (7:42.39) were 1162, 21points more than his mile (3:54.86).
Our leading New Zealand resident athlete in terms of points last season was Tayla Brunger, now in Colorado. Her 100 metres time of 11.97 set in late October 2020 before departing for Tauranga scored an impressive 997 points and Brunger also scored 970 in both 200 metres and 400 metres.
Lucas Martin with his 3000-metre walk at last year's Regional League in Masterton, where he stopped the clock at 13:05.2, was the leading male and resident points-scorer, converting to 992 points.
Eighteen-year-old Maggie Jones is our highest-returning female athlete and when still 17 ran her 100-metre hurdles in 14.57 to score 947 points (unfortunately the 300-metre hurdles where she won North Island is not included in the extensive list of events).
Bella Willis with her fourth place at North Island Schools in April (57.96 for 907 points) was the only other local athlete to exceed 900 points last season.
Nat Kirk with his 110-metre hurdles (15.56 for 863 points) was our leading male performer behind Martin and well supported over the demanding 400-metre hurdles in 56.05 (842 points). Travis Bayler scored 833 points in 800 metres was our next best male performer.
Bayler returns from university and with Air Force returnee Jono Maples and thrower Sophie Andrews also home from university, it is good to have senior athletes back at Cooks, Another university returnee, Grace Godfrey, is helping with the Girls' College group.
Maples set the ball rolling last week his 100 metres, scoring 811 points. Daniel Sinclair, still only 16, has run four consecutive bests with his 1500 metres last week statistically the best with his 4:0564 for 789 points.
Bella Willis leads the current female scores with her 848 points for her 59. 64 400 metres in Inglewood. Maggie Jones is close behind following her 100-metre hurdles into a headwind in Inglewood, scoring 836 points, and will clearly surpass this soon.
Fifteen-year-old Louise Brabyn with her outstanding 3000 metres personal best in perfect conditions on Tuesday (10:26.5) scored 835 points, only one point in arrears.
It is clear there will be frequent changes in the leaderboard over the next month – watch this space.
