By Ann Wells

What a great first day at Rawhiti at the weekend. Definitely not too much holiday rust given two records and a number of PBs were achieved. Continue reading →

A message from Paul Coughlan – Director of the International Track Meet

Dear Athletics Fans

We are now only a week from a festival weekend of Track & Field that all Cantabrians can look forward to and be proud of. Continue reading →

Schools are on the brink of returning and most summer holidays have now wrapped up, which means a Club update is well overdue.  News and happenings have just been picked up through word of mouth, so please let us know if any of our members have been embarking on adventures that have thus far gone under the radar. Continue reading →

The first race in the Port Hills Club’s 5km series took place on Tuesday evening – an earlier start in the year than usual, which may have contributed to a lower than normal turn-out for a race in this series. 

The Club was represented by five runners, and the best performing in terms of placing was Sia Svendsen in the Senior Women’s grade, who was second.  Josh Campbell ran an excellent time to be the best performed timewise for the Club.

The course was slightly long and this, coupled with a good headwind, might have meant some slower than anticipated times for some.

Sumner Results (by time)

• Josh Campbell – 17.55 (7th SM) 
• Eugene Campbell – 18.39 (8th SM)
• Sia Svendsen – 19.53 (2nd SW)
• Lockie Campbell – 22.58 (10th M45-54)
• Annette Campbell – 23.23 (3rd W45-54)

Full results

Apologies for the lack of updates of late.  Life, work and Christmas managed to get in the way which hampered my stalker-like tendancies.  But Google and Facebook are wondrous things, so here is a brief recap from recent weeks.

Latest member

It’s never too late in the season to recruit, so we welcome our newest Junior – Isabella Guise, who entered the world on Boxing Day weighing 7.6lb.  Our warmest congratulations to Grant and Jane (and ‘George Dog’) on this very special addition to their family.

The Records Keep on Falling

By Ann Wells

As the half way mark in the season is reached, the Sumner Running Club junior athletes are showing no let up in their drive towards improving their performances in the regular Saturday competition. Having competed on Burnside High School’s grass track for all but two of the meets, their achievements are even more notable.

To date, fifteen records (two new and 13 existing ones) have been broken with five of these having stood for an average of six years. The records have been spread between seven track, five field & three relay. Coupled with this, over two hundred PBs have been achieved by the athletes as a whole.

Thomas Webley, Sam Caldwell, John Wells and Millie Edmond continue to have outstanding seasons with them consistently being highly placed in their events on a regular basis. Ten of the club records have involved these athletes.

In the girls, Abby Theobald, Meg Webley and Bridget Bell show improving form in the longer track events, with Victoria Wells, Tilly Pritchard and Andie Fitch doing the same in the sprints. All have been involved in the various relay teams which have achieved top two finishes as well as three records.

Newcomers, the Andrews brothers have brought additional speed to the grade 9 and 10 boys with them performing well in both sprint and relay events.  Thomas formed part of the mixed medley relay team which broke the grade 10 record by 23 seconds and Oliver has teamed up with Dominic Godfrey (9), Connor Langworthy (9) and John Wells (8) in 4 x 100m relay which finished second in their last outing in the boys 9 grade.

Younger members, the Clarke brothers Sam and Aaron, and Blake Theobald have had a good half season with them showing all round improvement in their events. Finishing off the first part of the season Blake (7), Aaron (6), Millie Edmond (7) teamed up with Regan Jones (8) to finish second in the grade 8 boys relay. Regan also has shown improved form in the 200m and long jump this season.

With a break now for the summer holidays, the athletes have an opportunity to compete in the Colgate Games in Nelson or the Lovelock meeting in Timaru in early January before resuming the season late January at their new home at Rawhiti Domain.

Oliver Andrews in the Grade 9 Boys 100m

Abby Theobald in the Grade 10 Girls 1500m 

Photos:  Karen Theobald

Natural Running Workshop

Multisporter, runner and coach (not to mention Auckland’s fastest Santa at the recent KidsCan Santa Run), James Kuegler, is visiting Christchurch to take a Natural Running Workshop, on the evening of Sunday 8 January (5.00pm to 7.00pm), at Hagley Park.

Natural running techniques do not require you to throw away your trainers, its much more a case of allowing the body to recognise good form and once learnt you can wear any shoe you like.

For further information and details on how to book a spot, visit http://www.kugs.co.nz/Natural_Running.html

Recent Results

Sri Chinmoy 10km (Hagley Park) – 11 December

• 2nd overall - Russ Taylor (40.15)

New Zealand Secondary School Athletics Championships – 11 December (Wellington)

• Sarah Summerlee – 10th 2000m Steeplechase Final (8:37.88), 20th 4km Road Race (16.55)
• Josh Campbell – 7th 1500m Semi Final (4:20.01), 12th 1500m Final (4:25.22)
• Eugene Campbell – 10th 2000m Steeplechase Semi Final (6:53.92)
• Ryan Batin – 22nd 6km Road Race (20.45)
• Olivia Ireland – 35th 3km Road Race (12.40)

Local Road Races

A total of eight 5km races is to kick off shortly in Hagley Park.  The Port Hills Series starts very early into the New Year, on Tuesday the 3rd.  Thereafter they are on the 10th, 17th, 24th and 31st of January.  Taking over immediately after that, is the Athletics Canterbury 5km Series (three races), also on Tuesday evenings – 7th, 14th and 21st of February.  The finale is the Cashmere Downs Twilight 10km Road Race (formerly the Rovers 10km Road Race) on Tuesday 28th of February.

A great way of sharpening up for the winter season.  For the overall Athletics Canterbury calendar, visit http://www.athletics.org.nz/CANTERBURY/Article.aspx?ID=2219 (please note that the details/link for the Port Hills Series still contains the 2011 information).

Firstly, sincere apologies to Chris Rowe for not picking up her result from Saturday’s Kepler.  She had a great run, finishing in 7:22.25 (19th female overall).  This is a 50 minute improvement on her 2010 result, and would I be right in saying a three minute PB Chris? 

Thanks to Trevor Batin for taking some great shots of our members at the weekend…

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From Al Cory-Wright

The KidsCan Great New Zealand Santa Run is taking place this Wednesday evening.  If any Sumnerites want to enter and support Kids Can http://www.kidscan.org.nz/ they can turn up and enter on the day. There are already 160 Santas turning up.  Free sausage sizzle on offer, and a $30 Mizuno shoe voucher redeemable at Athlete’s Foot. Not to mention a free Santa Suit.

Entrance to Hagley Park is via the Armagh Street entrance.

For further information, visit the website.

Good luck to our Secondary School athletes who are competing in the New Zealand Track & Field Championships this coming weekend in Wellington:

• Eugene Campbell ( Shirley Boys High) – Open Boys 2000m Steeplechase
• Josh Campbell ( Shirley Boys High) – Junior Boys 1500m run, Junior Boys 4000m Road Race
• Olivia Ireland (Avonside Girls High) – Year 9 Girls 3000m Road Race
• Sarah Summerlee (Middleton Grange) – Senior Girls 800m Run, Senior Girls 1500m Run, Open Girls 2000m Steeplechase, Senior Girls 4000m Run

If I’ve missed anyone when scanning the entries, please leave a comment!

Kepler and Luxmore Update (ie what the results don’t tell you)

You can’t help but feel Lisa Brignull’s disappointment on Saturday – she was sitting in second place in the Luxmore Grunt and coming down the descent to cover off the final 9km of the race when she tripped, hitting her head and knee.  She had to stop and recover, and watch the 3rd and 4th placed women run on past, which relegated Lisa to 4th place by the finish.  A disappointing but gutsy effort by her, and we know she’ll be back!

In the Kepler, Sportzhub have revealed a little more about what played out on Mt Luxmore.  Vajin Armstrong was in the lead coming up to Luxmore Hut, at a height of 1,085metres at the 13.5km marker, and didn’t hear Marty coming up behind him. They sprinted together until Lukes shot past him onto a narrow board walk, with no way of Armstrong getting past.  Despite Marty being named King of the Mountain, Armstrong went on to win the Kepler, keeping alive the tradition of recent years that if you are King of the Mountain, you don’t win!

Our runners are now all in from their Kepler or Luxmore Grunt events in Te Anau today.  Congratulations to Marty for his second overall placing in the Kepler, which was taken out by 2010 winner Vajin Armstrong.  Special mention also needs to be made of Ryan’s effort in the Luxmore Grunt – 5th overall, which is a significant achievement given his relative youth.

Kepler Challenge

• 2nd – Marty Lukes – 5:09.03 (winning time 5:01.54)
• 5th – Grant Guise – 5:29.41
• 15th – Dallas Wichman – 5:52.40 (14th in category)

Luxmore Grunt

• 5th – Ryan Batin – 2:17.17 (winning time 2:02.43)
• 4th female – Lisa Brignull – 2:36.13
• DNF – Nathan Jones

All the very best to Marty Lukes, Dallas Wichman and Grant Guise (Kepler Challenge), and Ryan Batin, Nathan Jones and Lisa Brignull (Luxmore Grunt) as they prepare for their respective races on Saturday.

We’ll report their results as soon as possible post-race.