Multisport at Columba is a sport which is starting to take off, and has great potential to go further in the years to come.

Multisport encompasses two separate sports, multisport which includes adventure racing (running, orienteering, mountain/road biking, abseiling, kayaking etc) and triathlon/duathlon which is swimming, biking and running.

Adventure racing is new to Columba this year but has proved to be very successful. Our Columba team of Megan Maslin, Caitlin O’Brien, Saskia Learmonth and Mara Bentley came away with first place in the South Island Secondary School 12 hour adventure race and the same team came third in New Zealand. Megan Maslin and Caitlin O’Brien combined with Phoebe Ozanne and Emily Prout to compete in the Southland Triathlon and Multisport 6 + 6 hour adventure race, and also combined with four boys from John McGlashan College to compete in the South Island Hillary Challenge 6 Hour where they came fifth, just missing out on getting into the very competitive NZ Secondary Schools 5-day final.

Historically, Columba has performed well at the Otago and South Island Secondary Schools Triathlon/ Duathlon and this year was no exception. At the Otago Secondary School Triathlon Championships our senior U19 team of Megan Maslin, Sophie Gaudin and Zoe McCane placed first, Catherine Lund placed first in the U14 Girls Individual and Melanie Button placed 1st in the Intermediate Girls’ Division.

At the South Island Secondary Schools our senior U19 team of Megan Maslin, Sophie Gaudin, and Zoe McCane came second and our Junior Triathlon Team consisting of Emma Morton, Kayla Miller and Louisa Kotkamp came third. Riley Piebenga was first in the Junior Girls’ Duathlon and Caitlin O’Brien came 1st and Phoebe Ozanne came 2nd in the Intermediate Girls’ Duathlon.

At the NZ Secondary Schools Duathlon Championships, our team of Kayla Miller and Catherine Lund came first in the U14 Girls Team competition, Melanie Button came first in the U12 Girls Individual and Caitlin O’Brien came 6th in the U16 Girls Individual.

Next was the Peak to Peak Multisport race, our Year 11 team of Gemma O’Donnell, Siena Snow, Madi Loudon, Rachael Turner and Phoebe Ozanne competed in the Secondary Schools Team Section and came away with second place. Three of our students completed the whole 44 km race in the Women’s Tandem Section. Megan Maslin and an outsider came away with seventh place and Caitlin O’Brien and Emily Prout placed fifth.

We are excited to see what will happen to Multisport at Columba in the following years as we aim to compete at the NZ Multisport Championships, Coast to Coast Secondary Schools and get into the Hillary Challenge 5 day adventure race final as well as many other non-school events around NZ.

This endurance sport is great for developing an adventurous spirit, team work skills, endurance and confidence in the outdoors. Participating in events such as these gives students a head start for when they leave school and take part in well known MultiSport activities like the Spring Challenge, Coast to Coast, GodZone and many other events in New Zealand.

Megan Maslin

Multisport Captain