Young athletes stride out

Story by: Josh Reich - The Nelson Mail - Photo by: Chris Symes and Marc Palmano

A strong contingent of intermediate and secondary school students put the books down and pushed their bodies to the limit at the Andrew Jones Memorial Triathlon at Rabbit Island yesterday.

The event, which doubled as the Tasman intermediate and secondary school championships, saw competitors race over a range of distances from a 750m swim, 21km cycle and 5km run at under-19 level, down to a 250m swim, 7km cycle and 1.7km run for the year 7 and 8 pupils.

Points were accumulated to find the top secondary and intermediate school teams, with Waimea College taking out the older category ahead of Garin College and Nelson College, and Renwick School from Marlborough the intermediate age competition with Rapaura second and Broadgreen Intermediate third.

In the under-19 competition, Tom Nicholson from Garin College took out the boys' competition in a time of 1hr 15min 8sec, over six minutes ahead of Motueka High School's Andrew Read.

In the under-19 girls' race, Jessica Barnes from Marlborough Girls' College took the honours, ahead of Garin's Maryann Cant, who placed second for the second year in a row.

Jessica finished in 1hr 26min.

At under 16 level there was more success for Garin, with Amy Coulton winning the girls' race in 53 minutes, ahead of Louise Kelly from Nelson College for Girls who was six-and-a-half minutes back.

Josh Barry from Nelson College won the boys' race in 49min 40sec, with school mate Luke Kelly second.

In under 14 Andi Butler from Waimea won the girls' race from Rebecca Houston, also of Waimea, while classmate Hayden Squance won the boys' category from Nelson College's Sam Mackay-Wright.

Andi finished in 1hr 1min 38sec, and Hayden 50min 6sec.

In the year seven and eight race, Waimea Intermediate's Brooke Matheson won the girls' race in a time of 30min 57sec, three minutes ahead of Liv Bishop from Rapaura.

Renwick's Callum Caughey won the boys' race, ahead of Rapaura's Alastair Gifford. Callum's time was 32min 59sec.