South Canterbury Amateur Athletics Club

The annual South Canterbury Athletic Club’s one-day decathlon was held in mainly wet and wild conditions.

The event is designed to find South Canterbury’s best all-round athlete.

This year 18 athletes ran, jumped and threw their way through 10 challenging disciplines.

This is an astonishing number considering the New Zealand multi-event championships struggle to attract any more than a dozen competitors.

The decathlon is normally held over two days with such events as 100 metres, high jump, hurdles and javelin.

The South Canterbury Athletic Club has condensed the entire event into just five hours.

The bragging rights for South Canterbury’s Greatest Athlete this year goes to Simon Small with a total score of 4650 points.

Notable performances came from Sam Small with a powerful javelin throw of 36.80 metres, and Leanne McKenzie with an impressive 1.65-metre high jump.

Jonathan Lord also performed well with a 27-metre discus throw and Clayton Murray ran 1500 metres in 5m 21s.

As the final 1500 metre event began, a hail storm started and athletes were pelted by hailstones the size of marbles.

Results:

Open: C Murray (3755), W Doyle (3627), R Herrick (3414).

19 men: S Small (4650).

16 boys: M Dewar (3515).

14 boys: S Small (3984), B Laing (3301).

Timaru Boys High School walker Daniel Lord is looking to create his own slice of history at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Athletic Championships in Timaru over the weekend.

Lord is the defending open 3000m track walk champion and is going for an unprecedented third crown in front of a home crowd at the Aorangi All-weather Track.

The 18-year-old also has his sights set on Andrew Causer’s (Burnside High School) record of 12m 40.90s set in 1990.

Lord is confident he has the ability to go under the long-standing mark but will have to improve his season’s best so far by 9s.

“I walked 2000m and was inside the time I needed, so I’ve got a chance.”

The talented walker said it was hard to gauge how good his opposition was but he was looking forward to having “home” track advantage and plenty of support.

“I’ve always performed well here so I hope I can again.”

He will start as favourite in the seven-strong field.

The New Zealand Secondary Schools Athletic Championships are the hardest place to grab a title, and with over 1400 athletes entered it is also the biggest meet in the country.

Some of the competitors do not consider athletics their number one summer sport but are more than capable of being among the medals.

Several other South Canterbury athletes could be among the medals.

Roncalli’s Lucinda Shaw, a defending champion in girls open walk over 2km, will face 11 other walkers in her bid to retain the title.

Timaru Boys High School’s Tom Walsh also goes into the event a defending champion, with the shotput title.

Craighead’s Nicola Mackle is a contender in the high jump and possibly the long jump.

Roncalli’s Lauren Nicol will also be chasing the medals in the sprints.

SC Amateur Athletics Club new junior club captains Bradley Land, Leanna Ryan & Tom Cooper with the Rose Shield and Arthur Cup which they helped win in the annual team events against Temuka, Geraldine and Ashburton.

Highfield’s Brittany Cannell took out the 100m and 200m senior girls’ sprints at the South Canterbury Primary Schools Athletics Championships and anchored the relay team for third as well as winning the over 11 shotput.