Photo Credit - Masanori Udagawa / Photowellington.com

Story courtesy of College Sport Media.

There were eight records broken at last week’s College Sport Wellington Regional Athletics meeting at Newtown Park, seven on the track and one in the field (javelin).

With Tauranga teenager Sam Ruthe having sensationally broken the coveted 4-minute mile and rightly garnering plenty of attention for doing so, it is perhaps fitting that four of these CSW records were also in middle distance running.

St Pat’s Town’s Jaguun Gunregjav-Willers won the Senior Boys 800m in record time, along with Hutt Valley High School’s Anna Green doing likewise in the Junior Girls 800m [Green also breaking the Junior Girls 300, see below] and Scots College’s Mia Thomson winning the Junior Girls 1500m also in a new record. Thomson also broke the Junior Girls 3000m.

Gunregjav-Willers set a new best meeting time of 1:55.39 in coming home first in the Senior Boys 800m. This shaved .011 seconds off the previous mark set by K. McDonald of Scots College in 2011.

The St Pat’s Town year 13 runner also won the Senior Boys 1500m in a much slower time of 4:26.29 to claim the double on the day.

“The 800m race was the first one in the morning and the one that is my preference,” Gunregjav-Willers told College Sport Wellington.

“I knew what the record was, and I said to myself I will try and beat it by myself. I was happy with how it went - and conditions weren’t the best with it being windy and raining when I was racing.”

Gunregjav-Willers is coming off a busy summer on the track, which kicked off in December at the NZSS Track and Field Championships in Timaru.

He entered the Senior Boys 1500m and finished seventh in one of that meet’s blue-ribbon events. “I ran that event then because at the time I was more in 1500m and 2km steeplechase shape. The 800m is more about speed and strength rather than fitness to go longer distances.”

He then competed in the various Classics events around the country and has been selected in a 16-strong team to represent New Zealand in California from 9-22 April.

“I ran an 800m in 1:53.14 at the Potts Classic at Hastings and then I did a 3.54.34 1500m run at the Porritt Classic in Hamilton, so those two helped me get selected for the USA trip.”

Gunregjav-Willers is one of three Wellington region athletes in the tour party, along with fellow middle distance runner Joe Martin (Wellington College) and sprinter Luke Jarvis (Paraparaumu College).

Martin won gold at the NZSS meet in the Senior Boys 800m last December but wasn’t at the CSW Regionals last week. The two compete each other but train separately. Gunregjav-Willers’s coach is former New Zealand middle distance athlete Tony Rodgers and a typical training week sees him doing three sessions on the track and long runs around Wellington most alternate days.

Both were at McEvedyd Shield the previous week, won by Wellington College for a record 10^th time. McEvedy is a different sort of meet with athletes entering more events which are also typically bunched close together to earn points for their school.

Gunregjav-Willers won the Open Boys 400m and Martin won the Open Boys 800m in a new McEvedy record of 1:54.52 (with Gunregjav-Willers second) and the 1500m.

Sam Ruthe is also selected to go to California with Gunregjav-Willers and Martin. The Wellington runners have competed against Ruthe in some races over the summer, but Gunregjav-Willers admits to not having beaten him. “He is very fast and strong. Its in the genes – with his mum, his dad, his grandma, his grandfather! He’s a nice guy as well.”

The other three records last week were in the Junior Boys 300m with Wellington College’s Nova Tupai breaking the record that had stood for 13 years, the Junior Girls 300m where Anna Green of HVHS broke that as well as the 800m (see above) and in the Senior Girls Javelin where St Oran’s College’s Rebecca Bailey backed up her win at the NZSS Championships in December by breaking the 10-year old record with her third throw and setting a new mark of 44.08m with her sixth and final attempt.

These athletes and others are now eligible to on to compete at the North Island Secondary School Championships in Hamilton on the weekend of 5-6 April.

Following his return from the USA, Gunregjav-Willers plans on training hard to build up his strength and stamina for the new track season, while also looking to compete in the NZSS Cross Country Championships mid-year.

New Records

Congratulations to the following students who broke records yesterday:

• Zaiden Filemu, Scots College broke the Junior Boys 200m record with a time of 23.48s            
• Nova Tupai, Wellington College broke the Junior Boys 300m record with a time of 38.06s
• Jaguun Gunregjav-Willers, St Patrick’s, Town broke the Senior Boys 800m record with a time of 1:55.39s             
• Mia Thomson, Scots College broke the Junior Girls 3000m and the 1500m with times of 10:02.66s and 4:47.97s respectively
• Anna Green, Hutt Valley High broke the Junior Girls 300m and 800m with times of 42.66s and 2:15.25s respectively
• Rebecca Bailey, St Oran’s College broke the Senior Girls Javelin with a throw of 44.08m

Article added: Friday 28 March 2025