Petanque
A full field of 48 will converge on the Masterton Petanque Club for Hospice Charity tournament to be played tomorrow. It is the fourth year the tournament has been held, but the first time in Masterton, and organiser Graeme Morris is thrilled by the response, with 40 of the players coming from outside Wairarapa, including some from Tauranga. The tournament is played in a melee format. The players are randomly selected to play in different groups of three for each round, with the winner being the player with the most accumulated points. The tournament has been sponsored by Masterton Miter 10 Mega, Masterweave, and New World Masterton, with all proceeds going to Hospice Wairarapa.
Athletics
Jamie Dennis headed the big field for the second race of the Athletics and Cycling Masterton [ACM] Wairarapa Times-Age 5km series, which attracted a record 111 runners and walkers on Sunday. Dennis completed the course in 17 minutes three seconds, holding off Darius Simpson by nine seconds, with Whana Gordon third. Brooke Miller was the best of the woman finishing 10th overall in 21min 49sec, with Brooke Duffy second and Helen Gard’ner third. The best of the younger runners who completed 2 km was Jack Gard’ner in 11min 10sec. On what was a good day for the Gard’ner family, Charlie was second, and Jaxon Tobin was third. The third race in the series is on Sunday, February 12, starting at 9 am at the ACM clubrooms and sponsored by PGG Wrightson.
Cycling
Caleb Roberts and Belinda Fuller rode off with the major trophies in the ACM WizWireless Hill Climb Championships up the demanding Te Wharau Road on Tuesday. Roberts completed the grueling 6.79km climb in an impressive 17 minutes 59 seconds, more than a minute ahead of runner-up Richard van der Lent, with Dave Drummond third. Fuller finished in 22min 51sec, from Donna Burkhart and Gita Van der Leek. Scarlett McCallum was the fastest of the eBike riders in 13min 4sec, from Ricky Blade and Andrew Linton. The next race on Tuesday is the ACM club road race championships on the popular Carrington circuit.
Tennis
One hundred and sixteen players from over the lower North Island will take to the court this weekend for the Wairarapa Junior Tennis Open. The players will play singles and doubles and are guaranteed at least three singles matches. Games comprise the best of three tiebreaker sets to four games. The boys will play at the Trust House Masterton Tennis Centre, and the girls will be based at St Matthew’s Collegiate.
