This year the team travelled to Timaru to compete in the South Island Secondary Schools’ Athletics Championships.

The team started well on Friday with all the Hammer Throwers achieving Personal Bests or placing well. Joel Bolton placed 2nd in the U16, Tainui Little 3rd U16 and Zaine Murdoch 4th U14. Saturday morning did not start too well with Flynn Murdoch nearly rupturing his achilles in the 200m heats and having to withdraw from the rest of his events.

The rest of the weekend was very good especially for Duncan Trevithick. He ran in five events, heats and finals, so nine races in total and he placed in every event.

In the U15 age group he placed; 1st 200m, 1st 400m, 3rd 100m. Plus he was in the team that won the 4x100m U15 Relay, who broke the Otago/Southland record in a time of 46.99 seconds and 3rd in the 4x400m, U16 Relay. He also broke the Otago/Southland 400m record in 51.55 seconds. A very successful weekend for him.

Other members of the U15 4x100m Relay were Sam Donaldson, Isaac Dolan and Ryan Kreft.

Alex Brown was 1st and broke the Otago/Southland record in the 3000m walk in a time of 15:55.25 minutes.

George Bates placed 1st in the 1500m in a well-run tactical race and placed 3rd in the 800m.

Drew Cairney ran a very good 3000m to be placed 3rd in the U19 race.

Ryan Kreft is a young man to watch for the future. He was 3rd in the U14 200m and 4th in the 100m and also ran in the U15 4x100m Relay.

Taylor Smith is a field athlete on the rise with a 1st placing in the U14 Javelin.

We finished on Sunday with the U15 4x100m 1st followed by the 4x100m U16 (Keanu Vanisi, Bradley McPate, George Bates and Ryan Watterston) also 1st.

The last races of the meet were the 4x400m with the U16’s (Duncan Trevithick, George Bates, Bradley McPate and Keanu Vanisi) finishing 3rd. Then the Senior 4x400m (Janadhi Dissaynake, Drew Cairney, Liam Condliffe and William Scharpf) finishing 5th out 16 teams; a good finish.

There were many other very good races and lots of personal bests. We would like to thank the parents and supporters who travelled with the team and made the weekend go so smoothly.