Richard Sykes, 4 June 2026
Otago Cross Country Champs
Thursday 28 June saw the running of the Otago Cross Country Championships, an opportunity for our cross country runners to finally go head to head over the reasonably challenging course at Kaikorai Valley College.
Very heavy ground conditions and longer distances than the relay events made for a very challenging day of racing.
Ethan Kaina was the standout runner of the day, snatching first place in the Under 14 race after the runner in front made a costly error. Fletcher Webster (10th) and Zian Kruger (6th) also had very strong races, and the three of them combined to win the Under 14 team event. Well done, boys.
The Under 15 race was much more challenging than anticipated. The standout runner for OBHS was Joseph Scanelli, who produced his best race of the season to finish 4th, just behind Mason Bond. This helped lift the team to 2nd overall, with Connor Horne in 7th, Tamati Matthews in 10th, and Fergus Lloyd in 11th.
The Under 16 race featured a relatively small field, with William Bolter (3rd), Hossein Shirzad (4th), and Robert Lloyd (6th) all contributing to 2nd overall in the team event. Hossein looked very comfortable over the longer distance rather than the shorter "sprint" distances of the relays.
A young senior team consisting of three Year 12 students, Henry Hodgson, Sam Hobbs, and Mohit Singh ran very well over the longest race of the day. Henry finished the 7km race in 27 minutes and 51 seconds (3rd place) and was pleased to remain under four minutes per kilometre in the challenging conditions. Sam continued to get stronger with every race but left himself around 200 metres to make up in the final kilometre, which proved just a little too much, and he eventually finished 6th. Mohit ran well and looked very comfortable throughout, finishing 14th and contributing to the team's 2nd overall placing.
Thank you all for a great season. We look forward to another 11 months of training before next season.
