Club history

Founded

1978, in Rangiora — first for social runners, cross country and road running, later adding track and field.

Affiliations

An Incorporated Society, affiliated to Athletics New Zealand and Athletics Canterbury.

Club colours

Primary bottle green, with secondary gold and/or white. Black shorts.

Where we are strong

For many years one of Canterbury’s strongest clubs in the junior and masters grades, with Canterbury, South Island and national champions.

1. 2008/09

   Angie Petty (Angela Smit) represented New Zealand over 800m at the World Junior Championships in Poland in 2008, and at the Pacific School Games in Canberra. Simon Gannaway and Ashleigh Hall were both selected for the Pacific School Games in 2008, with Georgina Allison competing at the Commonwealth Youth Championships.

   Jaye Atkin was a reserve for the NZSS cross country team going to Slovakia.

2. 2007/08

   During 2007 Angela Smit competed at the Australian Youth Olympics. In early 2008 Ruth Croft placed 54th at the World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh, and placed highly at the World University Cross Country Championships in France.

3. 2006/07

   Highlights were the masters women’s and masters men’s teams winning Takahe to Akaroa; Lucy Oliver winning five national titles including the senior women’s short course championship; and a one-two-three in the junior mountain running championships by Lucy, Nicole Rogal and Ruth Croft. To top it off, Nicole finished 8th at the world championships. Georgie Allison also won the heptathlon at the nationals.

4. 2005/06

   During 2006 Lucy Oliver was a New Zealand representative at the World Cross Country Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, finishing 52nd. Rebecca Moore competed in the marathon at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games.

5. 2004/05

   Members won in excess of 50 Canterbury, South Island or national titles, plus many placings.

   Angela Smit, competing at the Pacific School Games, won 800m gold in a new record of 2:10, while Ruth Croft finished 7th in the 3000m. Late in 2005 Ruth placed 7th in the World Mountain Running Trophy for junior women.

6. 2003/04

   Another successful year, which saw Julia Brown and Becky Holland emerge as the top athletes of their age in the country for their events. Julia collected the New Zealand secondary schools pole vault title and the Athletics NZ U18 title, breaking the record. Becky collected the New Zealand secondary schools junior cross country and 3000m track titles, along with a number of provincial titles and records.

   Other great performances, including South Island titles, came from Josh Jepson, Harley Jepson, Erin Whitla, Erin Heasley, Jess Hindson, Sophie Tapper and Ruth Croft. Towards the end of the summer Ruth set a new Canterbury 1500m steeplechase record and a South Island secondary schools 3000m record, the latter set the previous year by Becky Holland.

   The junior boys placed 7th and the junior girls 5th in the National Road Relay. Although the teams were Pegasus, they included four boys and five girls from the six-person teams.

   The senior ranks were well represented at national level by Rebecca Moore and Niki Earnshaw. Rebecca placed 2nd in the national road race and later ran around 2:42 for the Chicago Marathon, while Niki won the senior 100m hurdles title.

7. 2002/03

   Becky Holland finished 2nd in the National Secondary Schools Cross Country Championships over the winter, with Josh Jepson 5th, both in the year 9 grade. Becky went on to win the junior girls 3000m at the national secondary schools championships in December 2002.

   The South Island Colgate Games in Christchurch in January 2003 brought nine gold medals — Becky Holland (G14 800m and 1500m), Jenny Turnbull (G13 1500m walk), Sophie Tapper (G12 400m, 800m and 1500m) and Harley Jepson (B10 400m, 800m and 1500m) — along with four silver and four bronze. In the younger grades our athletes won nine gold, nine silver and nine bronze pennants.

8. 2001/02

   Kelly Humphreys was again selected for the Ekiden Relays and was appointed captain of a team of younger athletes.

   The South Island Colgate Games in Dunedin in January 2001 brought three gold medals — Josh Jepson (B11 1500m) and Sophie Tapper (G10 1500m and 400m) — with other individual and team medals also won.

9. 2000/01

   Kelly Humphreys competed in the Ekiden Relays and was the New Zealand representative in a road mile in Hong Kong. Natasha Buckley also represented at the Ekiden Relays.

   Niki Earnshaw was selected to compete for New Zealand at the Arafura Games in Darwin, an U23 competition.

10. Before 2000

    In 1997 the 13-year-old girls 4 x 100m relay team — Becky Sweeny, Katie McCone, Jessica Riley and Sheryl Tomkies — took out the national Colgate title and collected nine other medals. The group went on to further success locally and nationally, particularly at inter-secondary school level representing Rangiora High School, which won the national secondary schools relay title alongside the Canterbury and South Island titles.

This record was carried over from the club’s previous website and currently ends at the 2008/09 season. If you have results, photos or memories from the seasons since, the committee would love to hear from you.