Ashburton College’s Aidan Campbell (right) at the Aoraki Secondary Schools Athletics this week Photo suppliedMid Canterbury athletes produced some solid results at the Aoraki Secondary Schools Athletics in Timaru on Wednesday with records falling and a number of victories coming from students of Ashburton and Mt Hutt colleges.

A large group of students from both schools made the trek down to Timaru after having to wait an extra 24 hours following the postponement due to the weather on Tuesday.

Ashburton College grabbed 25 wins throughout the day with some impressive results by a number of individuals.

They shone particularly in the under 16 girls’ category in the running events, clean sweeping the five running events with Emily Armstrong and Natasha Waddell winning the lot between them.

Waddell grabbed herself an Aoraki record in the process running her 1500 metres in 5.05.23, bettering the previous record, set in 2001 by four hundredths of a second.

The under-16 girls carried their running form through to the relay where they also set a record in the 4×100 metre relay.

Taonga Mbambo claimed himself a record in the Under-16 Boys’ 3000 metre record too.

The long-distance runner not only broke the record, he smashed it with his time of nine minutes and 33.13 seconds, bettering the previous record by 48 seconds which was set in 2012.

Ashburton College’s fourth record came from Anthony Van Aspern in the 400-metre event for athletes with a disability.

Van Aspern was in particularly good form winning the 100 metre and 200 metre events as well.

Mia Pearson was the other college student to taste multiple successes as she won both the high jump and the 80-metre hurdles event.

For Mount Hutt College, Aimee Elliott, competing in the under 19 girls’ category, was one of the star performers with a win and two seconds in the 3000 metres, 1500 metres and 800 metres respectively, breaking school records in all three events in the process.

Younger sister Courtney Elliott won the 3000 metres in the under-14 girls’ age group while the school’s other victory came from Blynz Monsanto in the under-16 girls’ javelin.

Mount Hutt College had new records set by Monique Johnson in the under-14 girls’ high jump with a leap of 1.43 metres and from Brea Roderick in the under 15 girls’ 3000 metres with her time when finishing second also under the previous best Aoraki record time.

A number of students from both schools will now go on to compete at the South Island Secondary Schools Athletics Championships.

By Matt Markham © The Ashburton Guardian - 17 March 2017