Athletics at Colgate Games in Wellington

We're back from our family summer holiday travels.

This year we were away for 12 days, mainly in Wellington and mainly for athletics.  I'll write another post about our touristy travels, but this one's about the girls' athletic competition.

So, the Colgate Games is the big national competition for 7-14-years-olds, with one held in the North Island and one in the South Island each year.  Last year we went to Inglewood, while this year we were in Wellington (we haven't yet tried the South Island competition; maybe next year!?).

The North Island competition results are here.  (The South Island results are here.)

Miya:

Miya signed up for the Grade 11 high jump, shot put and discus.

High jump is Miya's favourite event, and we were all delighted that she got a finalist ribbon for her 6th= placing (out of 23).  (Interestingly, her performance would have earned her a bronze medal at the South Island competition.)

Here she is jumping 1.25m, a new PB for her.  Her three attempts at 1.30m were all close, and no doubt she'll get it soon.

Miya's shot put of 7.24m, which earned her 12th place (out of 19), was satisfying and not far off her competition PB of 7.35m.  She was a little disappointed she wasn't closer to her practice throws of 8m, but that'll happen one day.

Finally, Miya threw the discus out 15.74m, earning her 14th place (out of 23).  Again, while it was a good throw, it wasn't quite at her best of 17.12m.

Mulan:

Mulan had a busy weekend, competing in the Grade 14 80m hurdles, long jump, discus, shot put and 4x100m relay.

Mulan ran well in her hurdles heat and qualified for the final.  Her 14.71 in the final was a new PB, earning her 8th place (out of 13) and a finalist ribbon.  She's in lane 2:

The swirling winds made long jumping tough; Mulan's first jump was into a head wind of 1.6m/s while her third jump had a tail wind of 2.1m/s.  Despite the challenges Mulan jumped well, and her first jump of 4.39m was good enough to earn her 10th place (out of 26).

Mulan's discus throw of 22.76m was another PB for her, and earned her 13th place (out of 18).  With practice throws of almost 25m, Mulan was hoping for a bit more, but we can't complain about a PB!

Mulan had three awesome throws in the shot put, with her best of 8.63m earning her 14th place (out of 18) and far surpassing her previous PB of 8.02m.

(Unfortunately I don't have a video of this, and I didn't get to see it, as I was on the other side of the stadium watching Miya's high jump.)

Finally, Mulan was part of the Takapuna Club's Grade 14 4x100m relay team.  I was also involved with this a bit, coaching them with their baton passes.  With one 12-year-old and one 13-year old, the girls did amazingly well in their heat to qualify for the final.  The final was one of those nail biters, with Wellington just beating them by 7 hundredths of a second.  No worries, 6th place and the finalist ribbon were well deserved.  The videoing (by me) isn't great, but you can (mostly) see Takapuna in lane 7: