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31/3/2015 2015 Summer Tournament Week Champions Softball
Boys: Mount Albert Grammar School 3 - 2 St. Patrick’s Kilbirnie Girls: Wellington East 3 - 1 Hamilton Girls High School Futsal Boys: St Patrick’s College, Kilbirnie beat Rongotai College (Penalties) Girls: Mount Albert Grammar 14 - 1 Cashmere High School 3x3 Basketball Final: Hobsonville Fraser High School 13 - 8 Fraser High School Softball Division I Boys: Mount Albert Grammar 3 – 2 St Patrick’s Kilbirnie Girls: Wellington East Girls’ 3 – 0 Hamilton Girls’ College Volleyball Boys: Western Heights High School v Heathfield High School: 25-23, 25-21, 25-20 Girls: Burnside High School v Waimea College: 19-25 25-18 25-19 20-25, 15-12 Tennis Boys Teams: Scots College: 6 - 2 St. Kentigern College Girls Teams: Westlake GHS: 5 - 3 St. Peter’s School, Cambridge Mixed Teams: Burnside HS: 6 - 1 Wanganui Collegiate Rowing Maadi Cup: Hamilton Boys’ High School Star Trophy: Hamilton Boys’ High School Springbok Shield: St. Paul’s Collegiate, Hamilton Levin Jubilee Cup: St. Margaret's College Dawn Cup: Waikato Diocesan School for Girls Ultimate Championships Boys: Hutt Valley High School: 10 v Auckland GS: 5 Girls: Epson Girls Grammar: 6 v St. Catharine’s College: 3  Olivia Eaton was one of 13 athletes selected by Sport Taranaki last year as a “future
champion.” Sport Taranaki assists aspiring elite athletes, both physically and developmentally via mentoring, personal development sessions and a comprehensive workshop calendar for the year. Eaton’s biggest expense is travel. In 2013 she travelled to the World Surf Live saving championships in Japan, where she finished second in the beach sprint and beach flags. She was beaten by Australian Nicole Kay, who became the youngest Australian to take out the national open women's beach sprint title when she was 15. Despite attending New Plymouth Girls’ High School, Eaton represents the Mount Manganui club in competitions. “The standard of competition is much better up there” explains Eaton. “I am used to commuting to the Mount. I get a lot of help from my coach Larry O'Byrne.” Eaton describes O'Byrne as an “incredible coach.” O’Byrne has certainly brought out the best in Eaton. In March 2014 she was the youngest winner of the open women's beach sprint title at the New Zealand surf lifesaving championships at Ohope Beach. Eaton earned selection for the 12-strong national youth team that competed in the World Champions on the sands of Le Grande Motte in Montpellier, France. Eaton achieved outstanding results of winning three medals, including gold in the women's beach flags. Eaton descried France as an “incredible experience.” “France was so nice, the weather was really hot, the competition was intense and my family came over and we did a bit of travel afterwards.” Beach flags, is not always nice. An explosive sport that features nine flags in a pit with the winner being the last person standing with the final flag can turn nasty. “I’ve seen a few broken arms. You have to keep your wits about you. The older competitors tend to be the roughest because they know they are stronger than you”, Eaton says. Eaton recently won the under-19 sprint and flag double at the New Zealand Surf Live Saving nationals. There are no such shenanigans on the track. Eaton is the senior girls national 200m champion and also finished third in the 100m at last year’s nationals in Wanganui. Eaton’s personal best for the 100m is 12.21 and 25-flat for the 200m. Eaton says her goal is to get under the 25-second barrier for the 200m which will put her in contention for age- group World Championship events and more travel. 25/3/2015 Hamish Kerr.... the 2.14m manUntil recently Billy Crayford from Wellington had enjoyed a stranglehold on the national high jump title.
The 27 year old had won the event for seven consecutive years. This year he was upstaged by a young, confident and rapidly improving school leaver from Auckland Grammar School. In December, Hamish Kerr leapt 2.05m to win his first National Secondary Schools’ title. He improved on that distance with a leap of 2.08m in January. In March at the National Championships in Wellington, Kerr launched himself 2.14m to win the National under-20 and open titles. Kerr’s leap was the seventh best by a Kiwi. He has improved his personal best from 1.93m to 2.14m in less than two years. Crayford’s all-time best is 2.15m achieved in 2011 when he was 23. Kerr explains conditions weren’t ideal for jumping at Newtown Park either: “It rained heavily at times and there was a gusty cross-breeze. I was lucky I jumped while it wasn’t raining, but still it was tricky.” In fact the weather was so poor that American Mike Powell, the world record holder for the long jump, cancelled his record attempt for the World Masters 51-55 world record. Kerr’s progress is remarkable given that he concedes he didn’t take the sport seriously until Year 12. Kerr explains it took the passing of his first coach to really motivate him. “Chris Trabing passed away in April of 2013. He was the guy who got me into the sport. He was so passionate. He gave a lot of his time and really understood the sport.” Trabing is amoung the top-ten high jumpers in New Zealand history. Trabing’s replacement Paul Lothian was a fairly handy athlete in his own right. The former national decathlete champion guided Kerr through until the end of last year, but was replaced by Anne Thomson; Kerr explains the reason for the change. “I am studying commerce at Massey University in Palmerston North. I wanted to get away from the big city, but I needed to work with a local coach. Anne is really good. She is a level 3 IAAF coach.” Kerr’s next goal is to break Glenn Howard’s national record of 2.30m achieved in 2000, a year that Howard attended the Sydney Olympics. “It sound’s a long way off”, but Kerr warns, “I am getting better all the time.” Note Eliza McCartney is the only other athlete in New Zealand to hold a National Secondary Schools’ and open title at present. McCartney from Takapuna Grammar School won three consecutive National Secondary Schools’ pole vaulting titles and broke the national record in 2014 when she leapt 4.45m in winning a bronze at the World Junior Championships.  Ellesse Andrews Photo by Eugene Bonthuys https://www.facebook.com/EugeneBonthuysMedia By chance, Ellesse Andrews met 3000m track cycling individual pursuit 2004 Olympic gold medallist and former world record holder Sarah Ulmer in the supermarket in Hamilton last week.
The Year 11 Mt Aspiring College student was there with her father and coach and former New Zealand track cycling Olympian Jon Andrews, the pair representing Southland in the New Zealand age group track championships in Cambridge. “We were doing some shopping and my dad knew her so they started talking and he introduced me to her,” said Ellesse. A few days later Ellesse set the New Zealand U17 Girls' 2000m individual pursuit [the junior distance equivalent of Ulmer’s race] record in a record time of 2:32.572 – over five seconds faster than the previous record set in 2010. That wasn’t all she won in Cambridge. “I won three individual gold medals and I broke three New Zealand records.” As well as the 2000m pursuit, Ellesse set records in and won the U17 Girls’ 500m Time Trial, in a time of 36.337, and the U17 Girls’ Sprint, in a time of 12.140. “In the 500m time trial event there is only one ride, so I just had to go out there and do it. For the 2000m pursuit I did my best time [breaking the national record] in my heat, and in the final I did a slightly slower time but I still won the gold. I broke the record in the 200m flying lap for the sprint event.” The 200m ‘flying lap’ is the individual qualifying time trial that each of the riders does to decide the seedings for the series of one-on-one races that follow. These are one-off sprints initially, but are then the best of three in the knock-out races. Ellesse won both her semi-final and gold medal sprint races two-nil. Ellesse also won silver medals in the 5km scratch race and the team sprint with Southland teammate Nicole Marshall. Father Jon, competing in the masters events in Cambridge, won four titles in the Masters men's 2 category, including a national record in the 500m Time Trial. “It’s really helpful with my father being my coach and having so much experience, because he’s at home and he monitors what I’m doing and makes sure I’m doing everything right.” Jon introduced Ellesse to track cycling a few years ago. “I didn’t really know much about it, not having a velodrome in Wanaka. My first major competitive event was about a year and a half ago, when I entered the Southland champs and did well.” It’s been a busy 2015 so far for Ellesse, travelling most weekends to train or compete, a necessity living in Wanaka where events are further afield and the only indoor velodrome in the South Island is in Invercargill. The Invercargill velodrome is a three hour drive away, but it’s also a world-class facility, having hosted the 2012 Junior World Track Cycling Championship. “I trained in Invercargill leading up to the nationals, so I could get the specific things in that you have to have a velodrome for, like starting and pacing and stuff.” “From the start of the year up until the age-group nationals we had a really busy two months, with basically every weekend going somewhere for training and competing. I had the Canterbury champs one weekend and then we went down to Invercargill several times.” This week she was competing in the Southland and Otago road racing champs. Ellesse said that she enjoys road cycling as well, but for now at least her focus for serious competition is the track. As well as cycling, Ellesse plays netball and does cross country skiing in the winter to keep fit - because living in Wanaka that’s on her doorstep. “Cross country skiing is really good winter training, it is basically just cross training, and it’s hard to train in Wanaka in the winter on the bike with all the ice and the cold.” |
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