High standard of competition in NZ

Four young Cook Islands athletes gave it their all at last weekends New Zealand Secondary Schools Champs held in Wellington in fine conditions.

The competition over the two days at Newtown Park was of a very high standard.

Patricia Taea did extremely well to make the very competitive 100m senior girls final finishing 7th in a blanket finish, with only a metre separating first and last places.

She recorded a top performance in the preliminary rounds on Saturday running the second fastest time of the day when stopping the clock at 12.61 seconds comfortably taking her through to the semi-final, where she finished a close 6th in 12.66 seconds before a top effort in the final on Sunday afternoon.

Tangimokopuna Junior George found himself competing against some of New Zealands rising stars in the 400 metres and 800 metres respectively and though he did not progress to the semi-finals his 400m clocking of 54.53 was a very fine performance for a 16-year-old. He was just .73 of a second from making the semi-final.

In the 800m he clocked 2.13.11 but the competition, with the likes of Wanganui Collegiates record breaker Brad Mathas, had a lot of depth and Junior had to be content with a personal best in the shorter event as the highlight of his first attendance at the champs.

Teiti Tupuna clocked 13.79 seconds in her 100m Junior Girls preliminary heat and was just .27 of a second from going through to the later rounds. In the long jump she finished in midfield with a leap of 4.44 metres.

Jolyn Iro finished 15th in the tough Senior Girls discus competition with a throw of 26.59 metres while her 5th in the shotput competition was a very strong performance.