Sparkling track & field day

3/3/2010

Brilliantly fine weather greeted this year’s athletics day on Littlebourne with some outstanding performances matching the conditions.

Under14 athletes to show out included Chris McNoe, who claimed the junior 800m, 1,500m and discus titles, and Sam Watson, who won the 100m, 200m, long jump and high jump.

Joel Stevens had a great day in the under 15 grade with wins in the 800m and 1500m, while Jesse Te Maiharoa was the under 15 sprint champion.

In the under 16 grade, Simone Tonga was the sprint champion, with others to shine being Michael Jolly and Brent Cheshire. Jared Hewitt was too strong in the 400m, 800m and 1,500m events, while Dean Rusbatch won both the shot and discus.

Toby Flett put on a display of sprinting that had the large crowd on its feet. He equalled the 200m record in a time of 22.9sec. This record was set in 1973 by Peter McLachlan and was equalled in 2004 by Craig Sneddon.

Toby then broke the 100m record by 0.4sec, holding off John Gilmour, Kane Russell and Liam Edwards in 10.5sec. John also broke the record in a time of 10.8sec.

William Scorgie dominated the middle distance events.

Kane Russell (javelin, 47.76m; discus, 35.04m) and Blake Ponton (shot put, 11.41m) were too powerful in the field events while Isaac Gutschlag won the cricket ball throw, the oldest trophy in the sports cabinet, with a distance of 95.25m.