New Zealand Cross Country Championships

Two weekends ago on Saturday the 19 of June, four of our athletes travelled to Hawera for the New Zealand Secondary Schools Cross Country Championships. This event was postponed twice and then eventually cancelled last year due to Covid19 restrictions, so it was good to finally make the long journey to Hawera. The boys were all competing in the Senior Boys 6k event with the course being extremely cut up after a day of heavy rain and five races on it earlier in the day.

Ethan Smolej, who on 18 June at the Athletics Canterbury Awards was awarded "Secondary School Non Stadia Athlete of the Year", was our first athlete home in tenth place out of 181 finishers in 20 minutes 26 seconds. Ethan, who had recently won the Canterbury Schools Cross Country title displayed both patience and tenacity to move through the field and ultimately make the Top 10 podium at the prizegiving. Sadly Ethan missed out on his ultimate goal of being named in the New Zealand team by only four seconds, the distance eight place was in front of him.

Samuel Doherty was next to finish in a worthy 53rd place running 21.49m. Samuel is a relative newbie to serious distance training and is quietly following his coach Bruce Milne’s advice and encouragement to improve with every outing. Josh Cowan has quietly been training away in between his football games and was happy with his 127th placing in 24.28m. Ethan Hansen, who has taken up cross country this winter, was also happy with his 156th place in 26.42m in such trying conditions.

Having three or more athletes competing allowed us to compete for the Three Person Team medals and the first three boys came 12th in New Zealand with 190 points.

On the Sunday all our four boys represented Canterbury in the New Zealand Secondary Schools Cross Country Relays. Canterbury fielded eleven teams of five athletes each running a 2k relay lap.

Ethan Smolej led off the Senior Boys A team, running the fastest time in his team of 6.15m. At the end of the relay they claimed the bronze medal.

Sam Doherty led off the 11th place Canterbury B team running 6.33m.

Josh Cowan and Ethan Hansen were part of the 16th placed Canterbury C Team. Unfortunately heavy rain affected the timing systems and meant that neither athlete got their individual time.

Overall, an awesome trip and I look forward to taking a van full to next year’s event in sunny Nelson.

John Gamblin

Team Manager