Old Boys qualify in Canty athletics

Press, 30 November 1987, Page 33

Old Boys qualify in Canty athletics

By

ROD DEW

High School Old Boys-Te Kura won the Canterbury regional qualifying round of the national Newmans track and field club championship at Queen Elizabeth II Park yesterday.

The club finished the day of keen and often enthralling competition with 268 points in the first division, pushing last year’s winner, Technical, into second place for the first time in three seasons. Technical was always a strong contender, but in the end had to be content with a score of 219.

Third place went to Papa-nui-Toc H on 161.

Avon won the division two contest, scoring 148 points. North Canterbury was second on 106, and Ashburton third on 102. Cashmere-Hillmorton was fourth with 59.

The first division win gave Old Boys the right to contest the New Zealand club final which will be held at the East Coast Bays Stadium in Auck-

land at Easter. Appropriately, what was probably the outstanding individual performance of the meeting came from an Old Boys athlete, Keith Olds. He cleared 2.07 m in the high jump, a seasonbest. The division two high jump was won by a young jumper of unusual promise, Steven Boilings, of Ashburton. He cleared 2.01 m. The women’s high jump was won by Leane Meaciem (Technical) with a jump of 1.65 m. Her closest rival was Kirsten Young (Technical), who could rise no higher than 1.60 m. The upset of the day came in the first division hammer. The reigning Canterbury champion. Matt Leech (Technical), managed an impressive 48.88 m throw, but this was not quite good enough on this occasion. Chris Barrett (Papanui-Toc H) sent the iron ball out to a season-best of 49.24 m for a well-deserved victory. Barrett also collected first

place in the discus, throwing 48.72 m. Mene Mene (Papa-nui-Toc H) was the runner-up with another good distance of 45.96 m. The Commonwealth Games representative, John Staple-ton-Smith (Technical), won the javelin with another throw frustratingly close to 70m. His best in the competition was 69.56 m. Another Games athlete, Jayne Mitchell (Old Boys), managed a worthy 12.17 m in the women’s triple jump. Meaciem was second with 11.28 m. In the 400 m hurdles, Meaciem had a well-earned taste of success, crossing the finishing line in.an excellent time of 67.665. Another Technical athlete, Kirsten Downie, was the runner-up in 68.315. Chris Middleton (PapanuiToc H) won the first division men's 400 m hurdles in 57.24 s and Wayne Stewart (Old Boys) improved slightly on his Saturday performance in the triple jump. He cleared 14.84 m.