Over the period of Friday, 30 November through to Sunday, 2 December, our team of eleven athletes competed in the New Zealand Secondary School Track and Field Championships held in Dunedin.

Day one dawned bright and clear, but with very strong blustery winds. This was always going to make things difficult for the runners and throwers we had in action on the day.

Despite the blustering wind conditions, we had some very good results for the qualifying heats of the senior boys’ 200m. Mattheus Pio (Year 13, 2018) qualified for the quarterfinals by coming second in his heat, running 23.85sec.

Travis Cashmore (Year 12) ran a good heat to finish fourth and to also qualify for the quarters. He ran 24.80sec in a strong headwind.

Harrison Bond (Year 11) ran an excellent 200m heat in the junior boys to win his heat - only to be disqualified for stepping on the line as they rounded the bend. Very disappointing, as he ran a good time, but it was a good learning experience for all of the team.

Isaac Reay (Year 11) ran the junior boys’ 3000m in 11:14.49min. He was a little disappointed with his time, but still had the 1500m and the 3km road race ahead.

Campbell Robb (Year 12) threw well in the senior javelin, just missing out on a finals spot and finishing ninth. A new school intermediate boys’ record though, of 48.47m. As only a Year 11 student, he still has another two years in the senior age group.

Day two was another windy day and brought with it a mixed bag of results.

Harrison Bond ran a strong junior 100m hurdles to qualify for the final. Sitiveni Lose placed eighth in the junior boys’ high jump reaching 1.75m again.

Campbell Robb had another strong showing in the throwing with a 30.64m hammer throw. A personal best (PB), placing him 15th.

Ben Strang (Year 12), along with Mattheus and Travis all progressed through to their respective 300m hurdles finals, with Mattheus also going through to the 200m semi-final.

St Paul’s performance of the day came from the 4x100m senior team, comprised of two seniors and two juniors, who qualified for the final with a very good time of 44.29sec.

Day three saw hot and windy conditions, but also brought us a selection of medals and placings in finals.

Brooke Batters (Year 12) jumped well in the junior high jump coming ninth with a jump of 1.55m. Harrison ran a good 100m hurdles final, coming fourth with a time of 14.81sec.

Travis and Mattheus were in the 300m hurdles final. Travis ran a great race to finish seventh in 41.74sec and Mattheus took gold with a time of 37.35sec. He followed this up with a silver in the senior 200m.

Ben Strang got silver in the junior boys’ 300m hurdles, to complete our medal haul.

The meeting culminated for St Paul’s with the 4x100m senior relay. We came a close fourth, just missing out on a medal, but performing well above what we had expected with two juniors running.

Following the conclusion of this national meet, Mattheus was selected for the New Zealand Secondary Team, for which he is to be congratulated (read more here).

The entire team would like to sincerely thank Mrs Helen Chileshe and Mr Paul Wilson who travelled with the students to the South Island.