 Photo thanks to Temposhot ... check them out! The country’s top athletes descend on Trusts Stadium in west Auckland this weekend for the 44th New Zealand Secondary Schools Track, Field and Road Race Championships.
The event, held over three days, will see approximately 1200 athletes from almost 200 schools competing, making it one of the biggest events on the secondary schools calendar. As always, much attention will focus on the sprint events, with strong fields in both the boys and girls sprints. Sixty one boys will line up in the heats of the senior 100m, with James Guthrie-Croft (St Peter’s College, Auckland), Nick Smith (Hutt Valley High School) and South Island champion Bailey Cotton (Nayland College) all amongst the 100m and 200m contenders. Defending champion Jordan Bolland (Northcote College) is out injured. Oliver Miller (St Peter’s College, Auckland) will be among the pace setters in the senior 400m. In the junior boys sprints, Auckland Grammar School’s Dominic Overand is one to catch, recently smashing the Auckland junior boys 14 100m hurdles record, recording 13.82 (+2.0) and breaking Niven Longopoa’s 2013 record of 14.19. In the senior girls sprints, Lucy Sheat (Marlborough Girls’ College) and Georgia Hulls (Havelock North High School) will resume their rivalry, with others such as sprinter and long jumper Briana Stephensen (Napier Girls’ High School) and last year’s junior 100m and 200m champion Leah Belfield (Te Awamutu College) expected to be hot on their heels. Focus will also fall on Kristen School pole vaulter Oliva McTaggart on day two of three on Saturday, who has just added a further eight centimetres to her recent New Zealand U17 record with a world class clearance of 4.30m. This makes her the top 16 year old in the world this year and third in the world youth rankings. Can she jump higher this weekend? Based on some athletes that have caught our attention this year and on the results of the respective North Island South Island Secondary Schools Championships held in April, some other athletes to look out for this weekend include: Junior Boys James Coates (St Bede’s College) – discus, shot put Ryan Sutherland (Burnside HS) – 400m, 800m Finn Seeds (Hutt International Boys’ School) – 800m Mikael Starzynski (Wairarapa College) – 400m, 800m Zion Trigger-Faitele (St Pat’s, Wellington) – discus, shot put Senior Boys Jono Ansley (Sacred Heart College, Auckland) – 800m, 6km road race Ryan Ballantyne (St Paul’s Collegiate, Hamilton) - shot put Opetini Dryden (Wanganui Collegiate) – javelin Scott Gregory (Whangarei BHS) – shot put Max Karamanolis (St Pat’s, Wellington) - 1500m, 3000m, 6km road race Nic Murray (Christ’s College) – javelin, hammer Max Press (St Pat’s, Silverstream) – 800m Isaiah Priddey (Hamilton BHS) – 1500m Theo Quax (MacLeans College) – 1500m, 3000m Max Spencer (Rathkeale College) – 800m Mitchell Small (St Andrew’s College) – 1500m, 3000m, 6km road race James Uhlenburg (Sacred Heart College, Auckland) 1500m, 3000m 6km road race Angus White (New Plymouth BHS) – 1500m, 3000m Junior Girls Pieta Hansen (St Andrew’s College) –100m, 200m, 400m Kalisi Longopoa (MAGS) – 80m hurdles, 100m Charli Miller (St Peter’s, Cambridge) – 3,000m, 3km [Year 9] road race Genna Maples (Wanganui Collegiate) – 100m, 200m Kaia Tupu-South (Westlake GHS) – discus, shot put Phoebe McKnight (Hutt Valley High School) – 3000m, 4km road race Tanya Murray (Sancta Maria College) – javelin Hannah O’Connor (Sacred Heart College, NP) – 1,500m, 3,000m, 4km road race Anna Skerrett (Southland GHS) – shot put Lisa Putt (St Kentigern College) – long jump, triple jump Senior Girls Ashleigh Bennett (Hawera High School) – long jump, triple jump Tegan Duffy (Villa Maria College) – 100m hurdles, 300m hurdles, long jump Adriana Mawhinney (Dunstan High School) – high jump, triple jump Atipa Mabonga (Central Southland College) – triple jump, long jump Emma Ryan (James Hargest College) – shot put, discus, hammer Madison Wesche (Lynfield College) – shot put Tessa Webb (Feilding High School) – 3000m, 4000m road race, NZSS Athletics Championships at a glance: What: 2016 New Zealand Secondary Schools Track, Field and Road Race Championships When: 2-4 December (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) Where: Trusts Stadium, Waitakere, Auckland Schedule of events: View the meet schedule here: http://nzssaa.org.nz/static/nz-tf-2016/programme.pdf Last year’s results: View last year’s results here: http://www.collegesportmedia.co.nz/athleticsxc/just-the-medalists-please-nz-schools-track-and-field-results-listed Records: Overall records: View the meet records here: http://nzssaa.org.nz/static/record-holders.pdf Records broken last year:
The five oldest NZSAA records date back to the 1970s, these are:
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