On Thursday 25th of May, some of the Tall Poppies competed at the Tall Poppies Cross Country at Whakamarama School. It was a 4km run around the farms behind the school. This event involved all of the Tall Poppies from rural Tauranga schools.

We arrived at Whakamarama School around 12 pm. We went for a walk around the track, then the first race started. It was the Year 7 boys. When we saw the boys leave the field and into the farm Ben B was in 7th place but in the end he finished in 5th and is going to the next round. Then we had the Year 7 girls race up next. The Tauriko girls had started strong at the start, then they went through the farm and they all started coming back, but Omokoroa had won once again.

When it was the Year 8 boys race it was tense as the sound of the clapper went. Everyone rushed to get it the front as fast as they could but as soon as they got to the farm, a bunch of people started walking. As the race went on, people were getting overtaken and overtaking others. In the end, Omokoroa No.1 won the Year 8 Boys race. It was almost time for the final race, the Year 8 girls. That race started before all the Year 8 boys finished so we didn’t see how that started but in the end the Tauriko girls didn’t come last.

When all of the races were finished we packed up our tarpaulin and descended on our way back to school, our return took much longer due to the traffic. The day felt like it was so quick because Cross Country was so much fun.

Proudly written by Ben Merritt and Ishandeep Singh