Otago came home from the meeting in Hamilton with a haul of 22 medals, one of which was a gold from a dominant under-20 men’s 4x400m team.
The team of Felix McDonald (18), Matthew Ogle (18), Sam Gouverneur (17) and Cameron Miller (17), finished the race in 3min 23.41sec, breaking the Otago men’s 18, 19 and 20 records.
It placed them comfortably ahead of the second-placed Auckland team, which ran 3min 29.63sec.Ogle set a fast pace early, giving the team a decent lead which set it on its way.Otago team manager and selector Megan Gibbons said the result was not unexpected, although they had done better than they thought.
"We thought they’d do well," she said.
"We knew the others had some 400m runners, but you never know what else they’ve got and it’s not always a 400m runner that comes through.
"They probably did better than we thought they would as far as the time went, but it probably wasn’t unexpected as well.
"The manner they did it, they were just so far in front it was just unbelievable."
The team was excited by the result and with such a young team it boded well for the future.
"We were really lucky that we had four ranked 400m runners, two of them were under 18, two were under 20.
"We did a little brief bit of what to do with their changes but all of them had run school relays, so they knew how a change in a 4x400m works.
"It’s probably not as crucial as a change in a 4x100m.
"The hard part was probably the incoming runner getting off the track when all the other teams were coming in."
It was hoped a senior men’s 4x400m team could be formed in the coming years.
The quartet which ran at the championships, were backed up by two reserves, including middle and long-distance runner Oli Chignell.
Also in contention for such a senior team could be 800m runner Sam Bremer.
