The final round of the Athletics Auckland Secondary Schools Challenge Cup competition was held on Saturday 5 December at Mt Smart Stadium. After three rounds Avondale College was sitting precariously in second position, with Macleans College ahead by just two points. Our team knew we had to go in strongly to secure our place at the top of the table.
A solid team effort was shown by our sprint group. Tremayne Redman-Gardner flew over the 110m hurdles at lightning speed with a super quick time of 14.85s, which ranks him as #1 in NZ U18 mens 110m hurdles (wind assisted). Tremayne is looking set for a solid performance at NZ Secondary Schools Nationals in this event next week. Srija Maddela ran her 100m sprint with great spirit in a group of incredibly talented U16 sprint runners. Kadin Taylor and Aryan Walanj both ran the 60m and 100m sprints. Both boys are looking strong ahead of Nationals, with Aryan running a new Personal Best time in the 60m of 7.67s, and Kadin also achieving a Personal Best time in the 100m with 11.77s – an incredible time for a 14 year old athlete. Lex Revell-Lewis ran a speedy 400m as well, winning his U18 grade, and Ethan Hardy placed 2nd in his U16 grade for the 400m. Well done, sprinters!
Over at the throws circle, Mose Faaumuumu Timo placed 2nd in the U16 grade with his shot put throw of 10.92m. He is warming up nicely for next weekend!
Our distance team was well covered. Aphra Balducci ran the 1500m and placed 3rd in her U16 grade. Both Kimberley May and Joanna Poland also ran the 1500m for the U18 womens group, with Kim placing 1st with a time of 4:33.06min and Joanna 4:41.57min. And to round it off, Ayub Sayid ran the 1500m in the U18 men's grade with a time of 4:20.16min.
Thanks to the efforts of our 11-strong team on Saturday, we were able to secure top points for Round 4 of the Challenge Cup, and topple Macleans off their perch! St Cuthberts, Saint Kentigern College and Rangitoto College all gave a good effort, but our Avondale College team showed stronger consistency across all rounds to finally take back the Challenge Cup! Congratulations to all the athletes involved in all the rounds.
We now refocus for the NZ Secondary Schools National Championships to be held in Tauranga this weekend. I am incredibly excited as a Team Manager, as our athletes have the potential to medal and take national titles. Our senior mixed 4x400m relay team is also looking poised and ready to defend their gold medal win from last year. It will be an exciting competition to watch and with all the hard work already put in place, we look forward to our athletes reaping the rewards of their efforts in Tauranga.
- Judy Revell, Team Manager
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