Otago athletes were prominent on the national stage at the weekend, and nowhere more so than in the hurdles.
Six of the region’s 28 medals — including three golds — came in hurdling at the national secondary school track and field championships at the Caledonian Ground.
Otago Boys’ High School’s Cameron Moffitt was exceptional as he dominated both the 100m and 300m junior boys events.
He ran times of 13.76sec and 39.45sec to claim golds in each — adding to his bronze in the shot put.
In the 100m race, King’s High School’s Jay Davis also ran well to claim bronze. St Hilda’s Collegiate’s Sarah Langsbury was equally as impressive in the junior girls 80m hurdles.
She finished in 11.96sec to claim a comprehensive gold, before also winning silver in the 300m hurdles.
Jenna Thorne got in on the action in the senior girls 300m race, the Otago Girls’ High School athlete making it six medals for Otago in the hurdles with a silver.
John McGlashan College’s Shay Veitch pulled out arguably the best local performance.He set a personal best of 6.98m — smashing his old PB of 6.39m — to go into first place with a round to go in the senior boys long jump.
However, he soon found himself in second again and needing to surpass 7.05m on his final jump to claim gold.
He did just that, flying through the air to pull off an incredible 7.11m to take the win.
Mount Aspiring College’s Zoe Smith also delivered an impressive performance to win the junior girls 1500m.
The 15-year-old ran a time of 4min 47.18sec to claim gold ahead of Christchurch Girls’ High School’s Rosie Trotter by just under three seconds.
John McGlashan’s Liam Wilson claimed golds in the multiclass para junior long jump, 100m and 200m.
Taieri College’s Ben Baines added another in the multiclass junior javelin, while also taking a silver in the shot put and bronze in the discus.
King’s High School bagged another gold for Otago in the junior boys 4×100m relay.
Ryan Kreft, Isaac Dolan, Vaiola Palu and Jay Davis had a better final change and held off Auckland Grammar School to take the win in 45.96sec.
Mount Aspiring also had an impressive time in the relays.
Its team of Abby Fisher, Abby East, Georgie Bruce and Scarlett Norman ran both the junior girls 4×100m and 4×400m and claimed bronze and silver respectively.
Dunstan High School got in on the action with a bronze in the senior girls 4×100m.There were plenty of other Otago athletes who got among the medals.
Mikiari Beauchamp-Moore (senior girls javelin), Zharna Beattie (senior girls discus) and Emma McKay (junior girls triple jump) all won silver.
Bronze medallists were: Nathan Hill (senior boys 3000m), Nirvana Hepi-Breen (junior girls discus), Max Yanzick (6km road race), Abby Fisher (junior girls 100m), Sam Nicholls (senior girls 100m) and Alex Brown (3000m walk).
