Description Comments

“Locals New Zealand Do Well Against 310 Schools”

Object type

Image

More Info →

Description: This image was taken for the December 17th, 1978, edition of the Tribune weekly newspaper, and was published with the caption: “The Palmerston North Boys' High School junior and senior teams, which competed in the national championship. At right is their coach, Mr P. M. Jowett.”

An excerpt from the article read: “The New Zealand Secondary Schools athletics championships were the biggest athletics festival held in New Zealand, apart from the Commonwealth Games. About 2500 pupils from 310 schools took part in the Wellington contest, and some fields attracted hundreds of competitors. Despite this, pupils from the Palmerston North area competed with outstanding success in some of the major events. Competition went on for two days.

However, the coach of the Palmerston North Boys' High School's team entry, Mr P. M. Jowett, has criticised the meeting's organisers for their handling of the road race starts. He says some of the situations were not only unfair - they were "highly dangerous.” He cites the case of the junior boys' championship (which his team won), and said competitors had to battle through about 280 competitors at the massed start. "And in the junior girls' event, competitors were knocked down and covered in blood from falls. In one boy's event, at least one boy was trampled while others had to avoid parked cars and one boy ran into a parked motorcycle.”

This image forms part of the Manawatū Evening Standard Negative Collection. Unfortunately, only negatives between April and December 1978 are held.