The province’s schools won 23 medals, including 11 golds, at the national secondary school championships over the weekend.
John McGlashan College’s Shay Veitch starred to claim three gold medals.
He flew 6.92m to defend his senior boys long jump title, winning the event by 14cm.
That was followed by an impressive 400m run in which he ran 47.52sec to open a 2sec gap between himself and the field.
He then combined with Ben Lund, Josh Hou and Dominic Morrison to win the senior boys 4x400m relay in 3min 24.89sec.
Mount Aspiring College’s Abby Fisher also returned a triple medallist.
She ran 25.89sec to claim bronze in the junior girls 200m.
That was followed by a gold medal in the junior girls 4x100m relay. She joined Estelle Gellatly, Georgie Bruce and Niamh Townsend to run 51.69sec and edge Whanganui High School to win the title.
That quartet — with Scarlett Norman coming in for Townsend — then ran 4min 18.16sec to win gold in the 4x400m relay.
Otago was dominant in the boys javelin as well.
Taieri College’s Ethan Walker threw a personal-best 63.63m to claim gold and finish more than 7m ahead of his nearest rival in the senior grade.
King’s High School’s Lachie Cameron threw 52.40m in the juniors to win by 77cm.
Cole Gibbons cleared 3.25m to claim gold, while Luke Moffitt followed for silver with 2.55m.
Jordan Evans-Tobata (Otago Girls’ High School) also claimed a gold medal in the junior girls 400m. She ran 59.39sec to win a tight race.
Otago athletes have excelled in the hurdles in recent years and they continued that trend to bag four medals across the hurdle events.
Sarah Langsbury (St Hilda’s Collegiate) and Tara McNally (Taieri College) claimed silver and bronze respectively in the senior girls 100m hurdles.
Langsbury finished in 14.40sec to edge McNally by 0.18sec.
Liam Condliffe (King’s High School) claimed silver in the senior boys 110m hurdles in 14.85sec.
Cameron Moffitt (Otago Boys’ High School) finished sixth in that race, although ran 39.27sec to take bronze in the senior 300m hurdles.
Zharna Beattie (Taieri College) and Zack Hibbert (Logan Park High School) both added silvers in the throwing circle.
Beattie threw 40.69m to place second in the senior girls discus, while Hibbert’s 43.62m lifted him to second in the junior boys hammer.
Wakatipu High School’s Sammy Fookes was the best of the middle-distance runners.
She ran 2min 20.46sec to claim silver in the junior girls 800m.
Emma McKay (Otago Girls’) took bronze in the senior triple jump with 11m.
In the para grades, both Liam Wilson (John McGlashan) and Ben Baines (Taieri) won several medals.
Wilson claimed gold in the junior boys multiclass long jump, 100m and 200m.
Baines won gold in the senior boys multiclass javelin, while also claiming silver in the discus and shot put.
