{"id":164888,"date":"2025-12-02T21:02:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T21:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/164888\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T21:02:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T21:02:07","slug":"on-the-up-nz-schools-athletics-champs-records-being-broken-even-before-the-games-begin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/164888\/","title":{"rendered":"On The Up: NZ schools athletics champs records being broken even before the games begin"},"content":{"rendered":"

MetService is forecasting a peak of 26C in Hastings on Friday, and highs of 30C on Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n

There is also much anticipation around this year\u2019s championships because of growing recognition of New Zealand international athletics in recent seasons, including Tauranga Boys\u2019 College runner Sam Ruthe, set to tackle the senior boys\u2019 1500 metres record held by Hawke\u2019s Bay athlete Richard Potts for 36 years.<\/p>\n

\"NationalNational schools senior boys’ 1500 metres record hopeful Sam Ruthe (black singlet) running his first sub-four mile earlier this year, celebrated by Sam Tanner (left), who was runner-up in the senior boys’ 1500m at the national secondary schools championships in Hastings in 2017. Photo \/ Athletics NZ<\/p>\n

Ruthe is expected to be in action from almost the start of compeition, in the 800m, but the focus will intensify in the 1500m heats, scheduled for 12.25pm on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Potts\u2019 record, set when running for St John\u2019s College, Hastings, in 1989, stands at 3m 46.92s but Ruthe has a personal best 1500m of 3m 39.17s, run in California in July.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year Ruthe became the youngest person worldwide to run a sub-four mile<\/a> (1609.344 metres).<\/p>\n

There is also anticipation around the appearance of Auckland sprinter Kendra Scally-Tu\u2019I, of Mount Albert Grammar School, said to be a threat to the senior girls\u2019 100m record of 11.59s run by Lucy Sheat, of Marlborough Girls School, breaking a 44-year-old record in Hastings in 2017<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Other notable performers at the same championships included 1500m runner Sam Tanner, throwers Maddi Wesche and Connor Bell, pole vaulter Olivia McTaggart, and Hawke\u2019s Bay world championships representatives in sprinter Georgia Hulls and shot put exponent Nick Palmer, all of whom have become international athletes.<\/p>\n

Wesche, Bell and McTaggart all set records at the event.<\/p>\n

Hawke\u2019s Bay schools will be represented by 79 athletes from 11 schools, with Havelock North High School\u2019s team of 24 being the largest, hoping to improve upon the five medals the school won last year in Timaru<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There will also be about 70 local volunteers helping run the championships.<\/p>\n

Gate entry is $5 for adults on Friday and $10 on Saturday and Sunday, with free entry for children.<\/p>\n

Doug Laing is a Hawke\u2019s Bay Today reporter based in Hastings, with more than 50 years in journalism covering most aspects of news, including sports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MetService is forecasting a peak of 26C in Hastings on Friday, and highs of 30C on Saturday and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[16669,16671,9218,28246,682,13912,5759,18430,34464,2550,19345,6489,5194,13609,111,139,3591,69,90,7798,9090,1314,6649,2242,213,223,1961,22974,810,686,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-164888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-athletes","9":"tag-athletics","10":"tag-before","11":"tag-begin","12":"tag-being","13":"tag-broken","14":"tag-championships","15":"tag-champs","16":"tag-entered","17":"tag-even","18":"tag-field","19":"tag-games","20":"tag-hastings","21":"tag-nearrecord","22":"tag-new-zealand","23":"tag-newzealand","24":"tag-numbers","25":"tag-nz","26":"tag-on","27":"tag-race","28":"tag-records","29":"tag-road","30":"tag-schools","31":"tag-secondary","32":"tag-sports","33":"tag-the","34":"tag-this","35":"tag-track","36":"tag-up","37":"tag-week","38":"tag-zealand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}