Felix McDonald (19), Cameron Miller (17) and Sam Gouverneur (17) have all returned to Dunedin as Oceania champions following the recent Oceania championships in Suva.
Miller and McDonald claimed gold medals in the men’s under-18 and 20 decathlon respectively, while Gouverneur won the men’s under-18 400mGouverneur also picked up bronze medals in the under-18 800m, 4x100m and 4x400m relays.
"It’s a good thing to tick off," McDonald said of the success.
"The three major kind of medals [are the] New Zealand champs, Aussie champs and Oceania champs.
"To get a medal at one of those is pretty good."
It was the second of those major medals for McDonald and Miller, both holding national decathlon titles.For Gouverneur, the medals were his first at a major championships.
He had entered as the fourth-fastest in the 400m, but ran a personal-best time of 50.26sec to claim gold.
The next day he backed up with time of 1min 58.13sec, good enough for bronze in the 800m.
Competing in both at a high level, he said the 400m had been his focus at this meeting due to the timings of both events.
"I was focusing on the 400 because it was first up," Gouverneur said.
"It’s pretty difficult to run an amazing 800 after two hard 400s.
"So I just focus on whatever’s first.
"But my training at the moment is probably more adaptive to an 800."
The trip had been his second to the Oceania championships, while McDonald and Miller were making their first appearances at the meeting.
Both have taken on one of the tougher paths in athletics, but are making a good fist of it.
McDonald scored 6485 points to win his event, while Miller racked up 6017 to win his.
Both were enjoying the challenge a decathlon offered, being well-rounded athletes although still keen to keep improving across the events.
Pole vault was one, in particular, at which they were working hard, although that was not uncommon for decathletes.
"It is totally foreign to us and we’d never done it before," McDonald said.
"So we’ve been trying really hard to get the hang of it; it’s a just a repetitiveness thing.
"If we can do that, the points will go through the roof."
Going from a Dunedin winter to the warm temperatures in Fiji had been hard to prepare for.
However, the overcast nature of the meeting meant the heat became more a help than a hinderance.
Going into the meeting out of season had posed another challenge.Back in the cold, the trio was now looking ahead to next season.
Miller, in his last year at Otago Boys’ High School, was playing rugby over the winter.
Gouverneur, a year 13 at King’s High School, and McDonald, a first-year Otago Polytechnic student, would focus on building strength before next season.
They were not the only Otago athletes to have success at the meeting.
Nathan Hill won silver medals in the men’s under-18 1500m and 3000m, while Liam Turner won bronzes in the men’s under-20 800m and 4x400m relay.
Hamish Mears claimed bronze in the under-18 shot put and discus, while Anton Schroeder was fourth in the men’s under-20 javelin.
