Athletes brought home more than 70 medals from the South Island secondary school championships in Invercargill at the weekend.
Highlights included dominant displays from Mt Aspiring, Otago Boys’ and Otago Girls’ in the under-19 and under-16 relays.
Mt Aspiring led the region, winning the under-19 girls 4x400m (Chantel Thurston, Amaya East, Millie East, Phoebe Laker) and the under-19 girls 4x100m (Thurston, Laker, Millie East, Niamh Townsend).
Laker (13) also picked up the under-14 girls 100m and 400m titles, and Amaya East (14) came third in the girls under-14 800m. Cody Armstrong claimed bronze in the boys under-19 400m.
Otago Boys’ also starred, winning the boys under-19 4x400m title (Owain Harris, Charlie Ottrey, Sam Chapman, Joe Parkinson), and Otago Girls’ won the girls under-16 4x100m relay (Sienna Nicholson, Anabelle Batchelor, Lisa Lokman, Emelia Adamson).
Batchelor went on to win the girls under-16 100m and 200m races and Adamson won the girls under-15 high jump, where Shanti Kara (Columba) won silver. Georgia McHutchon (Taieri) came second in the girls under-19 400m, with Caitlin Buston (Otago Girls’) third.
Jorja Gibbons (Queens) added to her already impressive medal tally this season, winning the girls under-19 100m and long jump, and claiming silver in the 200m.
Neve Beattie (Taieri) was second in the long jump.
John McGlashan’s Seb Ferro won gold in the boys under-19 100m, and was third in the 200m, and Millar McElrea came second in the 200m.
Wakatipu athletes showed they have a bright future ahead in the longer distances. Samantha Fookes won the girls under-19 800m title and Siena Mackley won the girls under-16 1500m and 3000m titles.
Long distance runner Zara Geddes (St Hilda’s) won silver in the girls under-19 1500m and 3000m events.
In the field, Columba College’s Alexa Duff continued her strong form this season, winning the girls under-19 discus and javelin tiles.
She also placed third in the shot put and hammer throw behind Renee Willis (St Hilda’s), who won gold in both events.
