Records fall at athletics meet

If there was an athlete of the meet award, Greer Alsop would surely be one of the first nominations received, with the 15-year-old Southland Girls' High School athlete setting a Southland secondary schools record and a Southland record.

She broke a record that has stood for 46 years on the way to taking three jumps titles.

The record performance came in the open girls' triple jump with a leap of 11.73m, demolishing the old record of 11.01m set in 1989 and adding 3cm to her own Southland W16 record from a week earlier. In the triple jump, national secondary schools senior champion Charlotte Muschamp had to withdraw through injury. Charlotte is the country's top-ranked W19 jumper, while Greer is the New Zealand schools junior champion and tops the W16 rankings.

The oldest record in the book is the U16 girls' long jump of 5.38m, set way back in 1964. It still stands, with Greer denied the record by a puff of wind. Her winning jump of 5.44m had a 2.3m per second tail wind, a fraction over the 2m allowable for records to be recognised.

A 1.5m high jump gave her a third Southland jumps title.

Liam Smith, of Tuatapere Community College, would also have a strong claim to an athlete of the meet award.

The 14-year-old athlete with a disability ran a record-setting 400m, in 61.89sec, smashed his own shot put record with an impressive 8.66m and added more than 4m to the discus record he set last year, with a throw of 24.78m.

Deejay Kennedy has assumed the mantle of Southland's best sprinter now that Matthew Robinson has moved to Dunedin, to the point of erasing Matthew's name from the record book with a time of 11.21 in the senior boys 100m, taking 0.06sec off the record set last year, with the James Hargest College pupil winning by 0.5sec. He increased the margin to more than 2sec in his 23.2sec winning 200m run.

Southland Girls' claimed another record, thanks to Hannah Adamson, who won the U15 800m in 2:25.26, the fastest time for the distances over all age groups. Hannah went out hard, separating herself from the rest of the field from the gun. She also won the 400m by good margin.

Ashleigh Horton (SGHS) posted the best girls' 1500m time with her win in the senior girls while Sarah Tecofsky (SGHS) and Holly Pierce (JHC) impressed in the U16 and U14 grades. The U15 and U16 boys provided the most competitive 1500m races. The younger age group had Jared Deal (SBHS) and Nicholas Cantwell (Fiordland College) battling the whole way, with Jared winning by 1sec, while the U16 race had Jake Henderson (SBHS), promising triathlete Troy McAlister (Central Southland College), Regan Bennett (Tuatapere) and Travis Haugh (Northern Southland College) in a tight group throughout and just 5sec separating all four at the finish. Jake took the title ahead of Troy, although the positions were reversed in the 3000m.

The Peeters sisters, Tori and Stacey, dominated the javelin as expected – both are the New Zealand secondary schools champions – and the St Peter's College pair head the national rankings for their grades: Tori the W16 and Stacey the W19. Tory won the U16 title with a throw of 32.94m and Stacey the senior girls with 37.47m.

Savannah Bruin (CSC) won the senior girls high jump with 1.66m then almost cleared 1.71m. The record is 1.7m. Devoney Spark (JHC) was just a blink away from the U14 girls 100m record, while Jonathon Hayes (Fiordland) won the U14 boys 1500m and 800m in near record time.

Eroni Sotutu (JHC) was one of the busiest athletes of the day, showing all-round ability in winning the open triple jump by almost half a metre, the U16 long jump with 6.04m (the best leap of all grades) and the U16 javelin, as well as placing third in the 100m.

The top five placegetters from the Southland meeting go through to the Otago-Southland championship this weekend at Surrey Park, with the best from there qualifying for the South Island championship meet the following week.

The Konica Minolta Cup for top-scoring school went to CSC, with the combined team of SGHS and SBHS taking the runners-up cup, and last year's winner JHC the trophy for third.

- © Fairfax NZ News