Sign In / Register
Records may have been broken at the recent Mahurangi College junior athletics day for Years 7 and 8, but unfortunately they will be deemed unofficial.
However, there’s a good reason for this.
This year the juniors competed in Term Four rather than Term One, which meant, as adolescents, more physical development and growth, and therefore an advantage over past Year 7 and 8 athletes who had competed in Term One.
Acting head of faculty for physical education, health, and sport Anthony Koers says students from Years 7 and 8 go through large developmental changes between February and October.
“Therefore, although competing in the same age brackets [as junior athletes from previous years], it is not comparing the same athletic performances, as seen in the shot put results,” Koers says.
“That means the [record-breaking] performances will be deemed unofficial records, and will sit adjacent to the historical ones rather than replace them. They will still be recorded on our running document.”
Normally the Year 7 and 8 students are part of the overall school athletics day held in Term One at Shoesmith Domain.
But this year the domain was closed for resurfacing so the event was moved to the college, which only had enough room to host athletics for Years 9 to 13 due to the school field not being completely open.
“There was no room [on the school field] for the Year 7s and 8s, hence the need to host their day in Term Four.
“We plan to go back to the one athletics day for everyone from next year onward.”
Unofficial records:
Nikita Phillips ran 12min 40sec in the year 7 girls 3000m – the official record was set in 2015 at 13min 40sec (meaning she bettered the record by 1 full minute)
Jack Wright ran 13.17sec in the year 8 boys 100m – the official record was set in 2016 at 13.50sec
Jayden Peterson ran 2min 32.07sec in the year 8 boys 800m – the official record was set in 1980 at 2min 36.06sec
Noah Gurney threw 9.35m in the year 8 boys shot put – the official record was set in 2023 at 7.91m (four other boys also threw past this mark on the day)
Louis Ward jumped 1.38m in the year 7 boys high jump – the official record was set in 2013 at 1.35m
