Three new records and the house to beat!

Despite having to work within a COVID setting, 2022 has been another great year for athletics at Tauranga Girls’ College, with three new records and lots of fun had by all. In place of the usual whole-school Athletics, a smaller Competitive Athletics event was held at Tauranga Domain, enabling TGC’s top track and field athletes to compete and challenge their athletic potential.

Throughout the day, students competed in their pick of sprints, shot put, discus, high jump, long jump, javelin and House spirit events. Shotput was the most exciting event of the day, with two records broken. Year 9 student Ruby Jones broke the junior record of 10.72 metres set in 2020 with a throw of 10.99 metres, and Year 11 student Saskia Rhind broke the intermediate record of 11.44 metres set in 2009 with a throw of 11.87 metres. Ruby Jones also broke the longstanding junior discus record of 26.84 metres set in 1967 with a throw of 34.09 metres, absolutely smashing the old record and setting an impressive new challenge for future athletes to beat.

These impressive records earn Ruby and Saskia the titles of Junior Athletic Champion and Intermediate Athletic Champion respectively. Olivia Hala has also been named Senior Athletic Champion for her outstanding performance on the day.

It was fantastic to see students sporting their House colours and cheering on their peers as they challenged themselves to give it a go and beat their personal bests in their chosen events. While every House made a valiant effort, there could only be one winner. Batten House took out the day with a total of 14 points, closely followed by Whina on 12, Te Auetu on 10, Sheppard on 8 and Mansfield on 6.

Batten House Leaders Tiarna Allen and Lucy Crawford say they’re “super proud of the participation from the Batten Team out there giving things a go,” and that as much as they were “stoked to take out the win,” the other Houses hadn’t made it easy. Their message to students for the next house event is to “keep it up!” as Batten hopes for another win.

With Competitive Swimming Sports coming up in a couple of weeks, Batten will have to watch their backs as the other Houses chase them for the top spot. After such a wonderful performance at athletics, it’ll be great to see not only which house takes out swimming sports, but also which records can be broken as students take to the pool.