South Island Secondary Schools Triathlon and Duathlon Championships — Ella MacDonald by CGHS

Triathlon

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What another fantastic year it’s been for our multisport team! Our strong team of triathletes and duathletes certainly made an appearance on the competitive scene this year and reaped the rewards of some outstanding results.

Our first event of the year was the South Island Secondary Schools Triathlon/Duathlon held in Oamaru on the 4th of March. The four hour drive to this event was a long haul for our dedicated athletes and their families, but it was certainly worth it. Our individual triathlete Olivia Kikstra placed second in the intermediate girls triathlon, while Ella McDonald also placed second in the intermediate girls duathlon with teammate Abbey Pain in 7th. Our only team competitors for this event ,Caitlin Titheridge and Brynlea Pain, won the senior girls duathlon team.

This event was followed closely by the Canterbury Secondary Schools Triathlon. This local event at Sumner/Scarborough was the most popular event of the year and saw some incredible results. All 5 of our under 14’s finished in the top 10 with Paris Carroll in 2nd and Ngaio Shaw in 3rd. In our under 16’s Olivia Kikstra finished strongly with second, Pixie Cockerill with 4th and Ella McDonald 6th. Our teams also did extremely well with our intermediate team finishing in 4th place  and our two under 19 teams in 2nd and 3rd place respectively.

We also had two of our girls attend the National Secondary Schools Triathlon held at Rabbit Island. These two girls performed outstandingly with Olivia Kikstra placing 4th and Pixie Cockerill 12th in the under 16 individual category. Pixie and her team also placed 1st in the under 16 team event.

The final event of the year was the annual Canterbury Secondary Schools Duathlon at Ruapuna Raceway. Once again, it was a freezing and wet day which made for tough conditions for racing. This didn’t stop our athletes from performing to the best of their abilities and there were, once again, some fantastic results! Our three teams each placed 2nd in three different age categories and we had three individual medal winners: Paris Carroll placed 3rd in the under 14s, Olivia Kikstra placed 1st in the under 16s and Pixie Cockerill placed 3rd in the under 16s. After an extremely cold but spectacular end to the season, we were all extremely grateful when Mrs Leech offered us a nice cup of hot chocolate back at school!!

This year has been yet another successful year for our multisport team and we couldn’t have done it without the help of all of the parents, coaches and transporters. A lot of effort and time is put in behind the scenes in order to make sure our athletes are organised and ready to compete. A special thanks to Mrs Leech for being an incredibly organised and supportive teacher, we couldn’t have done it without you and appreciate all the help you’ve given us this year. May next year be as successful as this one!

Brynlea Pain - Head of Multisport 2018.