Cycling
Year 12 Queens High School pupil Emma Sutherland has been hitting the headlines and following in the footsteps of former Queens pupil Alison Shanks.
Emma was competing in the Southland secondary schools cycling championships recently and gained a second in the under-17 girls time trial, just behind the Australasian champion, and a second in the road race.
She will now go to the South Island secondary schools championships, with the New Zealand secondary school and the national road championships her goal for later in the year.
These are impressive results from Emma, who not only trains many hours each week, but is also a top academic student, gaining her NCEA Level 1 certificate with excellence last year. Emma was presented with her academic badge at a recent school assembly.
Interschools
Recently, South Otago HS had its winter interchange with Gore HS. Playing at SOHS were the senior rugby, senior netball, girls football, squash and golf teams, and at Gore HS were the junior rugby, junior netball, girls hockey, trap shooting and boys football teams. The overall results for the day were 12 games to Gore High and 11 to South Otago.
About 90 boys from John McGlashan College, boarded the bus on Sunday, June 21 heading for Christchurch to take on St Andrews College in the annual winter exchange. The basketball team took to the court that night and was outclassed 83-33 by a well-drilled St Andrews team.
McGlashan players to stand out were Mitch Clarke and James Skeggs. The ice hockey was played at the Alpine Ice Stadium and again the McGlashan boys found the going tough. St Andrews is regarded as one of the top ice hockey schools in the South Island and McGlashan was no match.
James Hanff scored a fine goal for McGlashan, while Sam Dodunski, Dylan Lewis, Josh Hubbard and Sam Sheared also played well. The final score was 15-1 to St Andrews
The badminton team performed with credit, with John Lee, Jono Martin and Josh Oh all winning their singles games, while the doubles were shared, giving an overall 4-2 win to McGlashan.
The hockey team played at Poritt Park and was beaten 9-0. The trap shooters were narrowly beaten at McLeans Island. The football and rugby teams kicked off at noon and were moved off the school grounds to QE2 and Parklands respectively.
The rugby boys let themselves down in the first half, trailing 22-0, however they bounced back to have a much better second spell and even managed a try from Lachie Elliott, to finish 33-5.
Meanwhile, the footballers were locked in a titanic struggle. Ajay Cunningham scored for McGlashan and the visitors were unlucky not to add to their tally with the game ending 1-1.
The theatre sports team of Aiden Kellsell, Ryan MacArthur, Jeremy Spruyt and Joe Ashcroft had a convincing win in front of a very supportive audience. McGlashan now looks forward to the return summer interschool in term 4.
Bayfield HS competed strongly against Invercargill's James Hargest, a school double the roll of Bayfield. James Hargest is traditionally strong in hockey but an outstanding performance by the Bayfield boys team resulted in a 2-1 victory. Otago under-18 hockey representatives Aaron Farrell and Finn Gallagher led the way, with both players being a constant threat to the James Hargest defence.
The boys basketball team combined well, particularly in the second half, to gain control of the game and come out with a well deserved 56-36 win. New Zealand under-18 representative Oliver Smith top-scored and rebounded strongly. The combination of Smith and Sam Walker produced some excellent offensive and defensive plays which Hargest players struggled to cope with.
Otago under-17 representative Jake Swindell also showed strong defensive skills, taking James Hargest's strongest player out of many team plays as well as proving strong under the boards.
Badminton
Otago Boys and Bayfield were the only two boys teams to take part in the Otago schools competition and on paper this was always going to be a really tight battle.
First up was the doubles pairings of Kamil Patel and Sehan De Silva from OBHS playing Luke White and Richie Sharma from Bayfield. Bayfield was able to dominate this match and won in two straight games.
On the other court, James Swan and Chanuka De Silva (OBHS) played Ben Sparrow and Iesha (Bayfield), with this match going to OBHS.
The singles games were also closely contested, with Ben Sparrow dominating Sehan De Silva, while Chanuka De Silva (OBHS) and Iehisa Ichikawa (Bayfield) had a close tussle, with Chanuka edging out Ichikawa 22-20 in the second game.
With the scores locked 2-2 with two games to go, James Swan lost narrowly to Richie Sharma, while the two top singles players for their age group in Otago, Kamil Patel and Luke White, faced off in the final singles, with Kamil winning convincingly in two games.
This left the match locked up 3-3 but on a countback of games OBHS came through, winning by 7 games to 6. The game won by James Swan proved to be the winning of the match.
Queens, St Hildas Collegiate and Columba College competed for the girls title, with St Hildas being convincing winners.
Both St Hildas and OBHS will represent Otago at the zone finals and, if successful, will make the trip north to play in the national secondary schools finals in winter tournament week.
Country basketball
A new competition for country schools started this year with the South Otago area comprising boys and girls teams from Lawrence Area, Tokomairiro HS and South Otago HS (2 each) giving a total of 8 teams.
The draw was devised so that the girls played at one venue and the boys at another thus ensuring that if teams were short games would continue as combined teams could be formed.
The competition has been played on Friday evenings with 15-minute halves to ensure travelling teams were not too late home. The finals were played at SOHS on June 26.
Results: Boys: Tokomairiro 1, Lawrence 2, South Otago Blue 3, South Otago Red 4.
Girls: South Otago Blue 1, Tokomairiro 2, South Otago Red 3, Lawrence 4.
Tenpin Bowling
Recently, at Bowl Line in Dunedin, there was lots of laughing, celebrating and arms punching the air as the first Special Olympics Tenpin Bowling event took place for special needs Otago Secondary School pupils.
With 65 pupils participating from 10 schools throughout the Otago region, this looks like becoming a popular annual event in the school diary.
An average score of 83 was bowled, with 23 single strikes. South Otago High School's Zane Storer and Simon Greene from St Kevins College bowled two strikes each, with Andrew Easton, also from St Kevins, bowling three strikes to make him the player with the most points for the day.
Volunteers from Bayfield High School, the Otago Sports Institute and Sport Otago contributed to the smooth running of the event. The athletes were well supported by their school staff, who also enjoyed the afternoon's activities and helped celebrate their athletes' success.
Certificates were presented to the athletes by Geoff Rodden from the Otago Secondary Schools Sports Association.
Students who compete in Special Olympics events develop improved physical fitness, motor skills and greater self confidence. They exhibit courage and enthusiasm and build lasting friendships.
In term three the athletes will continue to train at the Wednesday Afternoon Sports Programme with Hockey and Football being two of the sports planned for the weekly skills and training sessions.
A Special Olympics New Zealand Football Ribbon Day will take place later in the term to showcase and celebrate the athletes' new skills.
• Calendar
Today: South Island schools rugby festival, Oamaru
July 6-9: South Island area schools tournament, Christchurch
July 20: Term 3 begins
July 22: Weekly ice hockey and football resume
- These articles are compiled by the Otago Secondary Schools Sports Assn Inc (OSSSA) which is proudly sponsored by the University of Otago College of Education. Contacts: Des Smith, Otago Regional Sports Director, PO Box 6303, Dunedin. Ph 470 1337 Fax 470 1786 Email: des@osssa.org.nz Website: www.osssa.org.nz
