Secondary sport: Six pupils in Otago touch team

The team has been training hard since the end of last year and is peaking with strong performances in its most recent outings.

The team contains many secondary school pupils, with six attending local schools.

Kaikorai Valley College pupils Renee Johnson, Tamara Turner, Jessica Wilson and Nicole McCutcheon are joined by Dayna Turnbull (Otago Girls High School) and Holly Johnstone (St Hildas Collegiate School).

The girls are all established touch players in local competitions and are leaders in their school teams.

All of the girls will travel with their respective schools to the South Island secondary school championships in Christchurch this month.

Jessica, Renee and Dayna were named in the South Island under-17 squad in December.

Unfortunately, Dayna and Renee had to withdraw due to representative basketball commitments and injury.

Both girls are in the New Zealand under-18 basketball team.

With players like these six talented girls coming through, touch in Otago is in good hands.

Queens High SchoolAt the Otago athletics championships, Lauren Wilson won both sprint titles, the 100m (12.84sec) and 200m (25.29sec), in the women's age 19 grade.

She also picked up the 200m senior women's title.

Sam McAuley competed two years above her age grade and placed second in the women's age 14 100m (13.56sec).

Nicole Bradley dominated the women's age 19 throwing events, winning the discus (34.47m) and hammer (37.67m) and placed second in the shot put (10.89m).

Otago Boys High School
This year's athletics day was held on Littlebourne in brilliant sunshine with some outstanding performances.

Under-14 athletes to show out included Chris McNoe, who claimed the junior 800m, 1500m and discus titles, and Sam Watson, who won the 100m, 200m, long jump and high jump.

Joel Stevens had a great day in the under-15 grade with wins in the 800m and 1500m, while Jesse Te Maiharoa was the under-15 sprint champion.

In the under-16 grade, Simone Tonga was the sprint champion, with others to shine being Michael Jolly and Brent Cheshire.

Jared Hewitt was too strong in the 400m, 800m and 1500m events, while Dean Rusbatch won both the shot and discus.

Toby Flett put on a display of sprinting that had the large crowd on its feet.

He equalled the 200m record in a time of 22.9sec.