St Paul’s had another impressive athletics season, dominating both the secondary school and national open age competitions.
At the Athletics New Zealand national track and field competition, shot putter Ryan Ballantyne placed third in the senior men’s 7.26kg shot put against Olympic qualifiers Tom Walsh (first) and Jacko Gill (second). Runners Jess Hood and Jade Henley-Smith won gold and silver in the 4x100m and 4x400m relays respectively. In their individual women’s under-18 events, Jade placed first in the 100m and 200m while Jess placed third in the 400m event.
At the New Zealand secondary schools competition Ryan and Jess continued their success with national secondary school titles in the shot put and 400m events. St Paul’s senior girls’ 4x100m relay team also took out the national secondary schools title.
To finish off the season with a bang, commendable performances at the Waikato BOP secondary schools competition qualified fourteen athletes for the North Island secondary school competition where they secured 11 podium finishes including three North Island titles.
