Whanganui runners on a mission

The annual Whanganui Secondary Schools Cross Country will be in full swing on the Wanganui Collegiate Golf Course on Thursday afternoon. PHOTO: Rob van Dort

In total 178 athletes will race around the Wanganui Collegiate School Golf Course circuit in the annual Whanganui Secondary Schools Cross Country later today. This represents a significant increase on last year's entry.

Although not reaching the large fields of a couple of decades ago this represents an increase of over 15 percent on last year and it is especially heartening to see more schools with at least enough athletes to make up a three-to-score team in the six grades competed for.

There are 93 girls and 85 boys entered and with the senior and junior grades combined there are fields of 60 and 54 in the respective boys and girls combined grades.

The leading athletes will use the race as a workout for next month's New Zealand Secondary Schools Cross Country and with a repeat of regional relays on the morning following the cross country many will be striving for a spot in the teams of five in the three grades for both males and females. The first three finishers in each grade today have automatic spots with a further two added in each grade.

The combination of the junior and senior grades not only adds numbers to the field but quality, especially in the girl's grades. It will provide intriguing head-to-head clashes which gives genuine excitement and solid racing.

Rebecca Baker (Whanganui High School) will start as favourite in the junior grade but the combination of grades brings her back in head to head competition with Wanganui Collegiate seniors Caitlyn Alabaster and Jane Lennox and Nikita McDonald (Girls College) and her High School team mate Libby Abbott in the younger grade where they will form a strong base on which to build team success. They will be kept honest by teams from Nga Tawa, Cullinane and Wanganui Collegiate School.

A junior runner is also favoured to take the boys combined race in the shape of Wanganui Collegiate School's Liam Back who impressed on the short course of the River Run and who finished fourth in the 1500m under 16 at North Island Schools in early April. Jack Gay (Collegiate) and Liam Jones (High School) will renew battle in the combined grade with Connor Hoskin, last year's year 9 winner (High School), Sam Thrupp and Thomas Conder (Collegiate) in the mix.

Year 9 grades are always hard to predict as there are inevitably many new faces. George Lambert (Collegiate) ran superbly in the River Run and was 5th in the North Island 3000 metres on the track with Year 9 team mate Ashleigh Alabaster who finished third at North Island over 3000 metres will start as favourite in the Year 9 girls grade but as indicated above there will be fresh new faces including Paris Munro (High School) hoping to upset predictions.

Most of those competing are there because they are part of a team or want to gain selection in their school team to travel to Christchurch.

The team element is a key ingredient of the sport and is almost certainly why the New Zealand Schools events next month in Christchurch continues to attract a 1,000 athletes from throughout New Zealand. While Collegiate won 10 of the 12 team races last year the High School resurgence, the usual competitive nature of Nga Tawa teams combined with the heightened team interest mentioned earlier in the article promises some exciting battles on the Collegiate Golf course later today.

The races start at 1pm with the Year 9 girls followed by the Year 9 Boys at 1.20pm. Both races are over 3000 metres (3 laps of the 1km loop).

The first combined race, the junior and senior Girls, is at 1.40pm also over 3000 metres.
The final race is the combined junior and senior boy's race over 4000 metres.

The tight undulating circuit provides good spectating with runners in sight for almost all of the lap. The terrain being demanding enough to make it a good test of cross Country prowess.

Next week I will look back on today's races and the subsequent Whanganui relay selections for the relays on the Sunday following the championships on the Saturday.