Lord won gold in the under-17 men’s track walk on Friday, while Sandilands won after a three-way countback which involved fellow South Cantabrian Sam Small.

The duo both cleared 1.97m during the men’s under-17 high jump, both smashing their personal bests by seven centimetres.

However, the countback gave the gold medal to Sandilands and the silver to Small.

Lord and Sandilands each earned another medal from their trip.

Lord won a silver in the under-20 men’s 10,000m walk, finishing in a time of 52min 58.00sec.

Sandilands was third in the men’s 110m hurdles with a time of 14.75sec.

Leanna Ryan earned two silver medals. Racing for Canterbury, she finished second in the under-17 4x100m women’s relay after she had secured silver in the 100m hurdles in the same age-group.

Rebecca Hodgson secured a bronze in the under-20 women’s hammer-throw with a throw of 47.50m.

Another South Canterbury athlete Tom Walsh won the senior men’s shot put with an effort of 17.92m to go with his fourth in the senior men’s discus.

Christina Ryan won the 13-year girls’ section, with four firsts and a third.

Ryan also sprinted to the 100m title in 12.67sec and will likely be the recordholder once verified by the Canterbury association.

The record was originally set in 1977 and equalled in 1983.

Ryan also won the 80m hurdles, discus, long jump and was third in the 200m, showing her all-round skills.

Ben Sewell won the 10-year-old boys’ overall title with two firsts and two seconds.

He won the high jump and 200m and was second in the 100m and 400m.

Geraldine Athletic Club’s only representative Samuel Danford won the 7-year-old boys’ section.

Danford won the long jump and shot put and was second in the 60m, 200m and discus and was third in the 100m.

Anna Hayward was second-equal in the overall 11-year-old girls’ section, winning the 100m and 200m sprint double and was second in the 400m.

In the 14-year-old boys’, Jacob Matson also won the sprint double

Jackson Hicks-Sandri finished third overall in the 9-year-old boys’ winning the 100m and was second in the long jump.

He also qualified second fastest in the 60m heats but an injury finished his day and cost him any chance of the overall title.

Also winning individual events were 14-year-old Lauren Bruce in the discus and Brandon Lockyer in the boys’ 9-year-olds long jump.

Zoe Borman also took a title when she won the 10-year girls’ 1200m track walk. South Canterbury had 54 athletes taking part with 450 in total competing over the weekend.

HIGH FIVE: South Canterbury Athletics Club’s Brandon Lockyer, 9, wins the long jump with a 3.92m effort at the Canterbury Children’s Championships.

Competing against 12 others, including the New Zealand record holder, Doyle ran, jumped and threw his way to a hard-fought victory.

However, Doyle did not have it all his own way. He was tied with record-holder Steve Te Whaiti, of Tauranga, on 5409 points after nine of the 10 events.

“It was the most exciting decathlon I had ever competed in,” Doyle said.

“I was trailing by 180 points after the first day, but knew that I should be able to gain some good points in the discus and javelin on day two.”

With a personal best of 19.47 seconds in the 110m hurdles, a 3m clearance in the pole vault and an elbow-wrenching 45.01m javelin throw, he drew level with the leader.

That was after clearing 1.55m in the high jump, securing 11.19m in the shot put and running 59.47s in the 400m.

Doyle said he expected to be beaten in the final 1500m race.

“Steve is a much faster sprinter than me,” he said.

“Going into the last lap I was tucked in behind him, then with 150m to go, I unleashed every last ounce of energy that I had, taking him by surprise.

“I just gritted my teeth and ran myself into the ground, collapsing as I crossed the finish line only metres ahead of a stunned Steve. It was awesome.”

He also landed a special bonus.

Doyle’s total broke the Oceania decathlon record for his 45-49 age group.

Veteran athlete Ron Munro also competed in Tauranga, performing well in the 60m, 100m, and 200m sprints and long jump.

With 24 athletes competing at the Saxton Oval in Stoke, the club brought home four gold, eight silver and two bronze medals.

Anna Hayward, 11, competing in the 10 to 14-year-olds, won gold in the 200m (29.3sec) and silver in the 400m (66.19sec) and 100m (14.32sec).

In the same age group, Lauren Bruce won gold in the discus (29.85m) and proved her versatility with a silver in the high jump (1.54m).

Jacob Matson also impressed with a gold in 200m (23.97sec) and silver in the 100m (11.85sec). Elizabeth Hampton also grabbed two medals with a silver in the 400m (63.8sec) and bronze in the 200m (28.44sec).

Mac Basford did likewise, with the 13-year-old winning silver in the 1600m track walk (10min 24.55sec) and bronze in the 80m hurdles (13.51sec).

Christina Ryan was also a golden girl in the 80m hurdles (12.97sec) while 11-year-old Jenna-Rae McIntyre struck silver in the 1200m track walk (8min 56.14sec).

Hampton, Hayward and Ryan joined Kelly Clifford to finish second in the girls’ 13-years 4 x 100m relay.

In the 7 to 9-year-old age group, 13 pennants were awarded to the athletes who finished on the podium. Nine-year-old Jackson Hicks-Sandri led the charge with four gold pennants, in the 60m, 100m, long jump and discus. Sam Borman, 8, won three pennants, with gold in the 60m and bronze in the 100m and discus.

Brandon Lockyer won gold in the discus and long jump while Caitlin Alexander won bronze in the shot put and 200m. Alice Ritchie took bronze in the 200m.

Hicks-Sandri, Borman, Lockyer and Alexander combined to win bronze in the 9-year-old boys, 4 x 100m relay.

Combined Events & Steeplechase Championships

Sandilands was one of eight South Canterbury athletes who won medals at the 39th New Zealand Secondary Schools Track and Field Championships but Sandilands was the sole titleholder.

All five Timaru schools competing at Newton Park brought home medals from the two-day event.

Sandilands ran 14.06sec in the semifinal to qualify third-fastest for the final.

He was then in outstanding form, running a very slick time of 13.48sec to claim gold and record a massive personal best by half a second. Sandilands’ effort was also an age group record and he was later named in the New Zealand Secondary Schools `paper’ team.

Mountainview High School high jumper Lee-Ann McKenzie also impressed.

She won silver in the senior event with a personal best jump of 1.70m.

The title was won on the same height but unfortunately for McKenzie was successful on a later attempt than the winner. However her performance got her named in the New Zealand team and entitles her to travel grants if selected to go overseas in the next 12 months.

Two other Roncalli athletes took medals, with Jacob Matson grabbing bronze in the junior boys’ 200m.

Matson ran a personal best time for the season in his quarterfinal clocking in at 23.08sec, a time that would have seen him share gold in the final.

Leanna Ryan, competing in the senior girls’ long jump, won bronze with leap of 5.31m.

Timaru Boys’ High School’s Jonathon Lord finished second in the open boys’ 3000m race walk in a time of 13min 41.38sec. The walk was seven seconds faster than the current New Zealand under-15 race walk record held by his older brother Daniel but he is still awaiting verification by Athletics New Zealand.

Tyler Collings ran an impressive 400m to win bronze in the senior boys’ final in a time of 48.90sec.

Two other medals were won in the hammer throw.

Timaru Girls’ High School’s Rebecca Hodgson won silver in the senior girls with a throw of 46.69m, while Craighead’s Tessa McNab won bronze in the junior grade with an 38.04m effort.

The eyes of the world are fixed on Auckland kid Jacko Gill (16), who hurled 20.38m to shatter his own national record and seemingly book his ticket for London last week. But while the country celebrated Gill’s talent, Walsh (19) was quietly putting together a remarkable performance of his own.

In fact, the apprentice builder was far more consistent than his younger rival, adding 57 centimetres to his personal best and landing four other throws beyond that previous mark. His 18.83m makes him the world’s third-best junior with a 7.26kg senior implement this year, behind Gill and Pole Krzysztof Brzozowski (19.18m). It also ties him for fourth place on the New Zealand all-time rankings behind Gill, and former Commonwealth Games shot medallists Les Mills (19.80m) and Courtney Ireland (19.45m), and equal with former Commonwealth Games discus champion Robin Tait.

History is littered with great athletes who have toiled in the shadow of superstars, largely unnoticed. Tait played second fiddle to Mills his entire career until finally breaking through at Christchurch in 1974. Perhaps that will be Walsh’s fate.

“To be honest, when Jacko first came on the scene, I was a bit jealous,” he admits. “Now I realise that’s not a bad thing for me. I’m just in the background, working away, and the people who know about the sport know I’m here – that’s all that matters. Jacko’s getting all the hype, but he deserves it, there’s no doubt about that.”

n some ways, Walsh is the polar opposite of Gill. Born and raised in Timaru, his sporting career has revolved around the Kiwi staples of rugby, where he played No8 for the South Island under-16 team, and cricket, having represented Canterbury age group teams as an all-rounder. This is really the first summer he’s pursued athletics as his top priority, although he has represented his country internationally over the past three years.

“I was more interested in cricket until about a year ago but I started to talk to other athletes around the world. They had done all this training, yet I was just a newbie and throwing just as far as them. It made me realise I could go a lot further.”

At 1.83m and just over 105kg, there is certainly some growth left in him. While Walsh considers himself technically sound, he acknowledges his strength and explosive power needs work.

“I was pretty happy with my results last week,” he says. “They’re probably a bit ahead of where I thought I’d be. I’d love to qualify for the Olympics but it’s definitely going to be hard – I’d say a 40/60 chance at this stage.” Gill’s presence just makes Walsh’s job a little harder. Gill has already achieved the Athletics NZ selection standard of 20.30m, they’ll need to surpass the international A standard of 20.50m if both are to appear at London.

The pair will face off again tomorrow at Auckland’s Sovereign Stadium in the second of three special record attempts. This time, Gill will focus on beating the world junior record of 22.73m with a 6kg shot. Walsh will take aim at 20.93m, good enough to take him past Brzozowski and give New Zealand the world’s two best junior shot putters for the year.

by Grant Chapman

Collings will also anchor the senior boys’ four by 400m TBHS team which includes Brett Clifford, Henry Chamberlain and Josh Westland and which could also be among the medals.

Tom Charteris is an outside chance in the senior boys’ steeplechase.

Hammer thrower Rebecca Hodgson, of Timaru Girls’ High School, is another who could be among the medals at the largest athletics meeting in the country.

Hodgson broke a Canterbury record as the Aorangi Park all-weather athletics track before departing and carries good form into the meeting.

The field events could well carry South Canterbury schools’ best chances with Waimate High School’s Ruby Cochrane in the senior javelin and discus while TGHS’s Caitlin Henderson is a contender in the junior javelin.

TBHS’s Michael Dewar is also an outside chance in the open boys’ hammer.

Mountainview High School’s Lee-Ann McKenzie will also be competitive in the javelin and will compete in the high jump.

TBHS’s Jonathon Lord is also a likely medallist in the 3000m open walk.

Roncalli’s Leanna Ryan, competing in the senior girls’ 100m and long jump, will be looking to gain good results after missing out on last year’s nationals due to an injury.

Sprinter James Sandilands (Roncalli) qualified to the final of the junior boys’ 100m hurdles last year when he finished 7th.

Sandilands will be hoping his improvement may put him in medal contention. He cleared 1.85m at a recent club meet and that should have him inside the top 10.

Roncalli’s Jacob Matson could be the surprise package. Matson qualified for the junior boys’ 200m quarterfinals last year in his first year at athletics. If he can reproduce his best form he should seal a final spot.

Unfortunately, Roncalli sprinter Brittany Cannell is out with injury after showing some good early season form.

Craighead’s Lauren Bruce will compete in the junior hammer, triple jump, discus and shot put.

She won both the hammer and triple jump at the South Island event so is a medal contender, but it is a big step up against the North Island’s best.

School-mate Tessa McNab was second in the hammer so will also be out to impress.

Rachel Rolleston was third in the senior pole vault at the South Island championships but will need to do better to win a medal.

We did not contest the Mackay & Drake cups that were in programme for tonight so we will do them on Sunday. It is for 16years and under and you must do 100m, 400m, long jump  and discus (M7W 16 weight) to be eligible. As discus is not on the programme we will be doing it for those who are contesting the cups. So if you wish to contest one of these cups can you please register before 1pm on Sunday. An email is fine but I won’t be checking them after 11am on Sunday.

I have done parent roster for the remainder of the season and will send it out tomorrow or Friday