Six children from Athletics Taieri were selected to represent Otago in the children's grade 12 and 13 New Zealand interprovincial meeting held over Easter in Hamilton.
This is a fiercely contested points-based competition, involving athletes from every province and has been held annually since 1979.
The Taieri athletes were Hannah Ashton, Jake Lyders, Tara McNally, Zharna Beattie, Cameron O'Connell and Flynn Murdoch.
More than 500 of the best children in New Zealand were selected for their strongest four events, and points were accumulated based on performances rather than placings.
Flynn was impressive, taking fourth in the boys (12) 100m (12.74sec) fifth in the 400m (58.80sec), and seventh in the 200m (25.94sec).
Zharna was strong in her specialty field events, throwing a massive 33.19m in the discus to take third overall in the girls (12) grade, and 13th place in the shotput.
Tara had an explosive time on the track, finishing in fifth in the girls (12) 80m hurdles (14.04sec). She was also strong in the 200m and 400m.
Hannah gained a haul of points, running an impressive (13.73sec) in the girls (13) 80m hurdles, to take fourth.
She was fifth in the high jump, eighth in the long jump, and 13th in the 100m. Cameron ran a strong 800m, crossing in 12th place, while Jake more than held his own in his four events.
Each of the Taieri athletes performed outstandingly well, with all of them achieving personal bests in most of their events.
Hannah and Tara were the top Otago point scorers for the girls (12) and (13) respectively. Otago finished seventh overall with 86,372 points. Canterbury was the top province, amassing 117,573 points.
