McEvedy Shield success for St Pats Town
Sweet taste of McEvedy success
Beaming with pride, St Pat's Town athletics captain Yarride Rosario rated the McEvedy Shield win as his career highlight.
Rosario, 16, the top-ranked under-17 sprinter in the country, said his school's pumped-up victory yesterday, over bigger cross-town rival Wellington College in the prestigious schoolboys' athletics competition, was by far his sweetest moment.
And for Rosario there were significant comparisons to make. Lifting the historic shield on the Newtown Park track meant more than wearing the silver fern or winning a national secondary schools sprint title. "It's amazing. I wish I could live this moment every day of my life," said Rosario, after he was swamped by frenzied St Pat's Town boys at the finish of the senior 4x100m relay.
"Especially winning that last race. That was indescribable."
St Pat's Town beat Wellington College by 185 points to 172, with St Pat's Silverstream and Rongotai well off the pace. Rosario said the margin was too close to call until the last of the four relays.
After claiming the senior sprint double earlier in the day, he anchored the St Pat's senior 4x100m team in 43.47sec to seal the satisfying victory.
"Before the relays it was touch and go. I didn't want to believe we had it until the last race," he said. St Patrick's College athletes have sprinted away with the coveted McEvedy Shield, snatching the prestigious schoolboys' athletics competition late in the day from defender Wellington College. "For a school our size it's an incredible feat really," St Pat's coach Leigh Lidstone said yesterday. "We've taken on a school twice our size and won." For most of the day, the shield was within the grasp of both schools. Defending champions Wellington, with 1500 pupils, were strong in the field while St Pat's Town, with 700, dominated on the track through sprint ace and senior captain Yarride Rosario. But as the haka and chants rang out around Wellington's Newtown Park yesterday afternoon, St Pat's grabbed the victory by 15 points in the final relays. Wellington's challenge fell flat with disqualification in two races because of baton blunders. Lidstone said St Pat's had set the tone for the Catholic boys' 17th win with a mass in the school chapel before the competition. They were also motivated by a close loss last year, and believed they could do it after lifting the shield in 2008. While the boys dedicated long hours in training, Lidstone said the support staff's roles were all- consuming too. "For someone like me it's all lunchtimes, Saturday mornings and two times after school each week, so it's very satisfying." Rosario, St Pat's athletics captain and seventh-form pupil, expected to celebrate into the night.
By Penny Miles
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St Pats take McEvedy Shield
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