Arthur Rowe dyed his hair with flecks of blue to sport his school’s colours on the course at yesterday’s Southland Primary Schools Cross Country race.
The 10-year-old Gore Main School pupil was excited ahead of the annual running races at Waimumu, his mother, Sammie Lindsay, said.
‘‘He’s like a little jack rabbit, really, I guess.
‘‘He’s got tiny little legs, but seems to go a long way.’’
Another pupil at the Gore school, Noah McKay, said he had butterflies.
‘‘I’m still feeling nervous because there was lots of rain last night, so it’ll be pretty muddy,’’ he said.
The two boys were among the 475 children who ran the Southland Primary Schools’ cross-country course yesterday.
Runners aged 10 to 13, from 16 zones around Southland, made their way around the hilly, muddy course at the Field Days site.
Event organiser and principal of Myross Bush School Wendy Kitto said the track, which remained the same distance of about 2000m for 10- and 11-year-olds and about 3000m for 12- and 13-year-olds, had a section that had become unsafe and so the route runners took this year had changed.
‘‘Unfortunately after the winds last year [October 2025] we’ve had to change from the wooded area, because it’s just health and safety.
‘‘We ... tried to find some more hills, but we don’t have the beloved creek crossing in it [this year],’’ Ms Kitto said.
The change of course at the ‘‘pinnacle’’ cross-country event in Southland meant a few of the 10-year-old girls accidentally took a shortcut and made it to the finish line, which was in the Southern Field Days shed, earlier than they should have.
Gore District Mayor Ben Bell, who attended the event, said he was ‘‘jealous’’ of the athletes, as he was quite the cross-country runner in his younger days when he attended Ōtaki School on the Kāpiti Coast.
‘‘It takes me back to my old primary school days,’’ he said.
Event officials estimated close to 1000 supporters cheered on the runners from the sidelines.
Poppy Tamariki, 13, of Verdon College, raced solo in the athletes with disabilities category alongside Chris Knight, of Invercargill, who met her through Inclusive Activity Murihiku.
Other winners included Mac Cochrane, 11, of Heddon Bush School, who won the 11-year-old boys’ competition, and Mahli An Kuoi, 11, of Waihopai School won the 11-year-old girls’ race.
Baxter Tamariki, 11, of Southland Boys’ High School, won the 12-year-old boys’ race for the third time in a row.
