Results, a race report and birthday cake to mark 80 years of Owairaka Athletics
We had beautiful blue skies for the 2023 Joe Giles Mile and a decent field of 33 athletes competing on a new course, measured and marked out by coach Bazyl Piotrowski - starting from the bike path near Valonia Skate Park and running almost all the way down to New North Road where the tent was set up on the grass.
After a karakia from Jon Turner, the race was started by Syd Morrow (ex-President) and it actually turned out to be quite competitive with Naoki Toyomura (just behind in black here) outsprinting Simon Mace over the last 50 metres to take the win.
Photo: James Marsh
Naoki is a modern pentathlete and is now heading off to Europe for more races to try to qualify for the Paris Olympics. We wish him lots of success. 3rd in the men's race was Paul White. Sophie Hogan won the women's race from Britta Hamill running her first competitive race since high school and Alex Lockhart who was very happy to beat her dad. Mack Brent (1st Junior Boy) ran a storming mile - over a minute faster than when he tried out the course on Wednesday night with the Lightning Bolts! And Sunday Bartlett ran well to take the win in the Junior Girls category.
After the race, everyone gathered in the club rooms for tea, coffee and birthday cake to celebrate Owai turning 80 in style. It was lovely to welcome back ex-President and now life member Natasha Muschamp with whanau, Pat and Toni Munro, and Christine Munro. Happy Birthday Owairaka Athletics (founded 1943) - 80 years young and going strong.
So many people to thank. Firstly our sponsors PAK'nSAVE Mt Albert who provided the prizes for the first man and woman. The club's first clubroom was in Anderson Park, just opposite where the supermarket is situated so it was fitting that they supported us for this race. Also, thank you to The Dorothy Butler Children's Bookshop, a long term supporter, who provided gift vouchers for the winning juniors. Thanks to everyone who made a donation to the high jump appeal.
And thanks to all the volunteers who made the event possible. Kate, Julie and Emily on the finish line managing timing and results. Dion helping with the tent set up and leading an impromptu drill session at the start. James Parker for services to traffic management. Cheryl who stepped in and helped with teas and coffees at the last moment. Tony Plowman for baking a delicious cake and doing all the shopping, James Marsh for photos, Matthew for a birds eye video view and all the rest of the hard-working committee for doing their bit and making this happen.
Full results here:
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