Sports+report+5

= = South Zone Athletics By Hannah van Waelsden Thursday the 5th of November was a heart pumping adrenaline rush for all the people who made it in for the South Zone Athletics. A lot of students came to compete in the many different events held at Hansen’s park, Opawa.

There were a number events in the athletics such as shot put long jump, discus, high jump; 50, 60, 80 and 100 metre sprints; 1000 and 1200 metre run; 50 metre X 4 relay and finally the 100 metre X 4 relay. The pupils were competeing in up to 4 events each, luckily students only had to compete against their own age and gender to make it fair.

The South Zones were held in school time starting from 9:30am- 2:45pm, which meant the students competing were a happy that they did were at athletics rather than doing school work. Students from year 5 - 8 were given the chance to compete. But the down side of this is the park can get pretty crowded.

The weather for the south zone athletics was absolutely perfect. It was sunny and warm so we couldn’t have asked for a better day for it. The zones were originally supposed to be on Wednesday instead of Thursday, but it was postponed for one day because of high (possibly dangerous) winds.

Hansens Park was the perfect place to hold the athletics at because the park has a long jump pit, sprint tracks and discus and shotput nets/marks. It was also very easy to find your events which was good.

The first and second place getters in each event went to Canterbury athletics held at QE11 stadium on the 1st of December 2009. Schools from all over canterbury went to compete this meant a long road trip for some schools. After the Canterbury’s there is are no more athletic competitions for the year.

It turned out to be a very successful day with basically everyone enjoying it.

As a competitor I can say that it was pretty nerve racking, especially in the sprints where everyone watches you. I want to personally congratulate everyone who competed in the south zones and to all those who made it in to the Canterbury zone athletics. I just hope next years one will be as successful as this years.