​Felix Williamson: Small man, big strides

Felix Williamson - Wellington College

One of the smallest athletes at the 2016 McEvedy Shield was one of its biggest stars.

Wellington College has retained the McEvedy Shield – winning the famous regional athletics title that also involves Rongotai College, St Pat’s Town and St Pat’s Silverstream for the 50th time.

Year 9 runner Felix Williamson enjoyed runaway wins in both his events, the U14 3000m and the U14 1500m.

He 3000m win was in the very first event of the day, before the majority of Wellington College’s supporters had even arrived at Newtown Park, while his 1500m win later in the day was probably the win that sealed overall victory for his school and was achieved with hundreds of school mates cheering him on in the stand.

The meeting is based on points accrued from each event. A win is worth four points, a second place three points, a third two points and a fourth one point. Wellington College finished with 221 points, ahead of St Pat’s Town on 159 points, St Pat’s Silverstream on 112 and Rongotai on 56.

Felix was pleased with his wins, citing his first as his favourite event of the two. “I prefer the 3000m, I’m more of a longer distance runner than a shorter distance one,” he said.

“Coming into today I thought I was going to do quite well in the 3000m, I wasn’t quite so sure about the 1500m. It’s also quite tiring doing two races that are both long distance.”

Felix said he’s more of a cross country runner than a track one. “I have done a lot of track, but my main area is cross country – I started that in Year 4 and I haven’t really stopped since.”

He plans on taking this year off, however. “I have got a problem with my heels and I just need to give them a rest.”

Felix has Sever’s Disease, or calcaneal apophysitis, which translates as inflammation of the growth plate in the heel. The condition is self-limiting – rest is the best treatment.

But first he’s tackling this weekend’s famous Karapoti Classic mountain bike race near Upper Hutt. “That’s just for fun. I did it two years ago, but didn’t do the full 50km race only the shorter 20km one.”

He lives in Maungaraki in Lower Hutt and has the nearby western hills as his training ground.  As well as running and mountain biking, Felix also plays football.
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He’ll take the rest of this year off to manage hi heel - but he hopes to be back competing at next year’s McEvedy Shield. 

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