Athletics

On 23 February, we kicked off the 2011 year with the big school House event – the Twilight Athletics. This was, once again, a very successful event where we were able to showcase some of our talented athletes to the rest of the boys and their parents. There were some great performances with school records broken and Joshua Hawkins showing his talent in breaking 11 seconds on the school’s grass track during the senior boys 100m.

Results: Year 7 and 8

Junior: Matt Palmer 1, James Matthews and Fletcher Kelleher 2 equal.

Intermediate: Tevita Faletanoa 1, Abraham Taucher 2, Tim Heslin 3.

Senior: William Backman 1, Geoffrey Tuitavuki 2, Tom Armstrong 3.

Year 9 - 13

Junior: Maile Koloto 1, Brett Farrell 2, Sam Heslin 3.

Intermediate: George Boyhan 1, Dalton Coppins 2, Ryan Goosman 3.

Senior: Joshua Hawkins 1, Tim Payne 2, Seb Manickum 3.

At the Auckland Secondary Schools Zone Qualifying Meeting, Sacred Heart’s dominant performance ensured that we were able to send a very strong team to the Auckland Regional Championships, held on Monday, 21 March, where SHC athletes had a sensational night. The list of top performances is extensive:

Senior Boys: Joshua Hawkins: first in 100m and 100m Hurdles.

Sebastian Manickum, Hezron Alban, Jack Halpin, Joshua Hawkins: first in 4x100m Relay.

Joe Collins: sixth in 1500m.

Intermediate Boys: Dalton Coppins: first in 200m.

George Boyhan: first in High Jump and fourth in 100m Hurdles.

Bailey Stewart, Sheldon Cullen, George Boyhan, Dalton Coppins: first in 4x100m Relay.

Daniel Manickum-Pullen: second in Triple Jump.

Bailey Stewart: third in 400m and fourth in 200m.

Sosefo Kautai: fourth in Javelin.

Junior Boys: Brett Farrell: first in 200m and 300m.

Francis Cabriga, Martin White, Sheldon Tovio, Brett Farrell: second in 4x100m Relay.

Martin White: third in Triple Jump and sixth in 100m.

Sheldon Tovio: third in Discus and sixth in 200m.

Daniel Manickum-Pullen: third in High Jump.

Our sprinters were the stars of the evening, dominating all three age groups, and with fine performances across the board, this SHC team certainly made those who were present take notice. The real highlight of the night was victory in both Intermediate and Senior Boys 4x100m races. From this fine performance, several of our athletes were selected to represent Auckland at the North Island Championships, held on 2-3 April. Results here were as follows:

Brett Farrell: first in Junior Boys 100m and 200m.

Dalton Coppins: first in Intermediate Boys 100m, 200m and 4x100m Relay.

Joshua Hawkins: first in Senior Boys 100m and 110m hurdles, second in 4x100m Relay, and third in 4x400m Relay.

George Boyhan: first in Intermediate Boys high jump and 4x100m relay, and sixth in 100m hurdles.

Daniel Manickum-Pullen: third in Intermediate Boys High Jump.

Sheldon Tovio: third in Junior Boys Discus.

Bailey Stewart: 10th in Intermediate Boys 400m.

Since then, Joshua Hawkins’s outstanding silver medal in the World Youth Championships 110m Hurdles and Dalton Coppins’ bronze in the Commonwealth Youth Games 200m in September have demonstrated their talent and potential. Subsequently Joshua went on to win the 2011 ASB Young Sportsperson of the Year Award.

This year, the team has grown again as the sport moves from strength to strength, and a record-sized team of 32 boys travelled to Wellington for the New Zealand Secondary Schools Athletics Championships. The Stars for our team this year were the Junior Boys 4x400m Relay team who are now the NZ National Champions!!! Well done to Finn Horsefield, Brett Farrell, Henry Boyhan and Bailey Stewart who won GOLD for SHC

Other Outstanding results from the meet were:

Senior Boys 4x100m team who won SILVER  (Sebastium Manickum, George Boyhan, Sheldon Cullen, Dalton Coppins)

Junior Boys 4x100m team who won BRONZE (Bailey Stewart, Sheldon Tovio, Henry Boyhan, Brett Farrell)

Dalton Coppins who won SILVER in the Senior Boys 200m

Bailey Stewart who won SILVER in the Junior Boys 400m

Special congrats to Bailey Stewart who finished the meet with a Gold, Silver and a Bronze medal. Bailey also stepped up for the team to run in the senior boys 4x400m race straight after finishing his JB 4x400m (after Dalton Coppins had to withdraw).

A great event and some great results, most pleasing was the fact that we significantly improved our results from 2010 and without some of the superstars of previous years being present.  Nice to see Josh Hawkins coming down and supporting the team, and to Ingrid Manickum for her help with the team management over the weekend.

We look forward to a successful 2012!

Rhys Taucher, Kim Bolton, James List