Easter weekend did not provide much rest and relaxation for Charli Sinclair and Lila Rhodes, as they headed to the North Island to compete for Otago at the interprovincial athletics championships.

Over Easter weekend two of our Columba athletes joined the Otago representative team to compete at the National Athletics Interprovincial meet for Grade 12 and 13 year old's. The competition was based in Palmerston North, spread over two days and was fierce. The best of the best came from every province to chant and compete. Lila Rhodes was first up in the 1500m and ran a well-paced race, surging from 900m out to pass the majority of the field and secure a well deserved 6th place in a highly competitive field, with a personal best performance of 5:07.58. Lila was pipped for 5th place by less than half a second. This is also a new Columba record for U14s over this distance. Lila's performance was a great way to kick start the competition. 

Charli Sinclair was named joint team captain and followed on from Lila's performance on the Sunday with a very tactically smart 800m race. Charli kept in touch with the leading pack, running an even pace, and completed the first 400m in 1 minute 12 seconds. She then fought to maintain this pace for the second lap coming home in a very credible 15th place in 2:32.90, less than 2 seconds outside the U14 Columba record that has stood since 1989.

Charli was also part of the 4x100m relay that came 7th. Both Lila and Charli did extremely well over the weekend of competition. Both girls secured personal best performances in long jump and shotput respectively. Something they both should be extremely proud of. 

Charli and Lila will join Rachael Turner, Jaime Reid, Faith Courtney, Alexa Duff, Rhiana Webster, Pip Eason, Melanie Button, Imogen Harrison and Millie MacKenzie at the South Island Secondary Schools Athletic Championships this coming weekend in Christchurch. Good Luck to you all!