This past weekend saw the Columba College Athletics Team join other schools from around the region in welcoming back the Otago Secondary Schools Athletics Championships after a lengthy absence thanks to Covid.

Columba provided an enthusiastic and super talented team of young athletes whose impressive school spirit shone through on both the rainy Friday evening and the surprisingly hot Saturday as well. Everyone in the team combined for some superb results in both field and track events:

• Kiana Brown won her U14 shot put, came 2nd in U14 discus, cam 2nd in u14 high jump
• Alexa Duff won U16 javelin, won U16shot put, won U16 hammer throw, won U16 discus
• Shanti Kara won her U14 discus, won her U14 high jump
• Imogen Harrison 2nd in U15 triple jump, 3rd in U15 long jump, 3rd in U15 100m
• Heidi Clarkson won her U16 triple jump, won her U16 long jump, won her U16 high jump
• Tila Te Whare won her U14 long jump, 2nd in U14 200m
• Lyla Bowering won her U14 200m, 2nd in U14 100m,
• Faith Courtney 2nd in Senior 400m, 2nd in Senior 800m
• Lyla Rhodes won her U14 800m, won her U14 1500m
• Maddie Taylor 2nd in U15 800m
• Melanie Button won her U15 3000m

In the final relays of the meet our U14 team of Tila Te Whare, Lyla Bowering, Kiana Brown and Shanti Kara comfortably won their 4x100m race while our 16+ 4x400m team of Lila Rhodes, Maddie Taylor, Imogen Harrison and Faith Courtney came a very credible 2nd place.

Special congratulations go to Alexa Duff who not only powered her way to victory in all of her field events but also grabbed an Otago record for her winning U16 discus throw of 36.81m. A wonderful effort! 

With results like these across all of our athletes, Columba College was easily the most successful school competing at the Championships, relatively speaking. The future looks bright for athletics at the College next year and beyond.