King's High School dux William Scharpf is set for his last day at school today - but it is going to be a long one.
Scharpf (16), who was good enough to be awarded dux honours at the school earlier this month despite only being in year 12, is due to sit an NCEA level 3 economics paper this afternoon, starting at 2pm.
The issue is, at just about the same time, the senior boys 800m heats at the national secondary schools athletics championships in Dunedin will be about to start. And Scharpf is a starter. Well, an entrant perhaps.
But he will be nowhere near the track - he will be sitting the exam at King's High School, alongside two other pupils from North Island schools with the same predicament.
"It's not ideal really. I thought all the exams would be finished but they had this one at the end," he said.
He will complete his exam and then quickly be transported to the Caledonian Ground, where he and his fellow examinees will run in a specially-arranged 800m heat for the three runners.
"It is going to be hard to focus on the exam knowing there will be people running ... but then we will have the advantage of knowing exactly what time we will have to do."
Scharpf has been a busy boy during exam time - the economics exam will be the ninth (and final) one he has sat this month.
He sat five scholarship exams, along with NCEA exams. He is set to study engineering at Canterbury University next year.
On the track, he is keen to do well, having just missed out on the final of the junior boys 800m at last year's championships by one place.
He is also competing in the 4400m relay and the 1500m.
The championships, which have attracted more than 1300 pupils from around the country, Niue, and the Cook Islands, start this afternoon and go through until Sunday.
