The first of the revived Children’s XC races were held on Sunday at Trentham Memorial Park. The return of this event follows on from the earlier XC series that was organised by the able Jo Murray who at the time was working for Athletics Wellington.
It is not clear why the event dropped away but perhaps Jo Murray’s departure to another sports administration role and the time and cost required to organise these races on a continuing basis that could not be sustained.
Still, Sunday’s event, organised by Willy Szeto is a toe in the water for the return of these kid’s races and could be regarded as a trial to see how it could be made to work.
I can report the weather did not come to the party as it was raining (mostly lightly) for most of the day. Thus it was not the most auspicious start and possibly one reason why the fields were quite small. It was also Mother’s Day. Interestingly the kids did not seem to mind running in the rain and getting wet. I can’t say the same for myself though.
Because of the modest number of entrants for each of the grades the boys and girls races were combined.
This started with Year 3 children and ended with the bigger Year 8 kids. So that is 6 races in total with distances covered being 1km, 1.5km and 2km. The course was well laid out with marshalls stationed at key turning points just to make sure nobody got lost.
For these events, times are not recorded but finishing places are. This is in keeping with how schools races are organised by Primary School Sport and makes sense when you consider that placings and not times are how regional teams are selected across schools and zones.
If I was going to make a suggestion I would recommend using older kids from an athletic club to act as a pathfinder for the kids to follow, which takes away the burden of knowing where to go, especially for the younger ones. This approach was used successfully in the earlier XC series.
Year 3 Photos 1km
Year 4 Photos 1km
Year 7 Photos 2km
Year 8 Photos 2km
Year 6 Photos 1.5km
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