Jack Lewington won three gold medals at the NZ secondary schools’ championships. PHOTOS/FILE
ATHLETICS
CHRIS COGDALE
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Wairarapa athletes came home with 11 medals, including seven golds from the national secondary schools’ track and field championships held in Tauranga last weekend.
Wairarapa College’s Jack Hunter continued his good form with victory in the junior boys’ 1500m.
The 15-year-old won in a time four minutes, 4.6 seconds, more than 2.5 seconds ahead of the second-placed runner.
Kuranui College’s Jack Lewington and Waicol’s Josh Taylor each won three gold medals in para-athletic events.
Lewington won the T37 senior 100m, 200m, and long jump, and claimed the silver medal in the shot put.
Taylor was first in the T20 senior javelin, shot put, and long jump, and was runner-up in the 200m and 400m.
Jarrod Yee from Kuranui College only took up the triple jump two years ago after watching a YouTube instruction video. On Sunday, he picked up a silver medal with a best jump of 12.78m, just 0.78m behind the winner.
Other notable performers were Waicol’s Matthew Rodger, who was sixth in the senior boy’s 100m and 200m, which were won by rising sprinting star Eddie Osei-Nketia, and Waicol’s Sovaia Sabutu, who was sixth in the junior girls’ 300m hurdles, after only taking up hurdling in recent weeks.
Caedman Hawkins [Waicol] finished fifth in the senior boys’ discus and seventh in the shot put, Mia Bartlett [Waicol] was fifth in the junior girls’ javelin and eighth in the hammer, Joe Quinn [Rathkeale] was sixth in the senior boys’ hammer, and Rathkeale were fifth in the junior boys 4x100m and 4x400m relays.
