Otago saved their best for last.
The region’s rising stars picked up three medals on the closing day of the national secondary schools athletics championships in Hastings on Sunday.
Mount Aspiring College runner Phoebe Laker snagged silver in the senior girls 400m in a time of 55.48sec.
She was runner-up to St Peter’s School runner Boh Ritchie, who edged ahead in 55.06sec.
Otago Girls’ High School’s Skye Wilson flew to bronze in the junior girls 80m hurdles with a time of 12.30sec.
King’s High School long-distance runner Caleb Dobier won bronze in the junior boys 2000m in a time of 6min 39.71sec.
Otago athletes put in a solid shift across the three days of competition in all track and field disciplines.
Mount Aspiring thrower Ryan Enoka came fourth in the senior boys hammer throw with his best distance of 43.11m, and Taieri thrower William Evans was fourth in the senior boys javelin with his best throw of 52.73m.
Dunstan thrower Kiri Morgan was fourth in the junior girls javelin with a distance of 32.02m, and St Hilda’s Collegiate’s Charlee Farquhar was fifth in the junior girls shot put with 11.85m.
Ashton Robertson (Otago Boys’) finished fifth in the senior boys high jump with a leap of 1.90m, and Jade Wilson (Otago Girls’) finished fifth in the senior girls 100m hurdles in 15.04sec.
Tauranga Boys’ runner Sam Ruthe, 16, continued his outrageous form on the track this season to add yet another record to his tally.
Ruthe, who earlier this season became the youngest person in history to go under the 4min mark in the mile, shattered the national secondary school senior boys 1500m record with a time of 3min 38.62sec in the Saturday heat.
His time broke the previous record — held by former Commonwealth Games runner Richard Potts since 1989 — by 8sec. It also eclipsed the national under-20 and under-19 records held by Olympian Sam Tanner, and Ruthe’s own under-18 and under-17 marks.
Ruthe went on to win gold in the 1500m on Sunday with a time of 3min 49.47sec.
He won gold in the senior boys 800m in 1min 46.81sec, breaking the national under-20, under-19, under-18 and under-17 records.
