Disappointment for young runner

James McLeay was meant to be in Sydney this week, competing at the Australian T & F championship.  But Covid put paid to that.

McLeay was entered in the U17 3000m, 2k steeplechase and 1500m, the same events he ran the NZ champs last month in Napier. 

In the Sydney steeplechase he is ranked second fastest of all entrants, in the 3000m he has the third best time and the 1500 the fourteenth, so was in the running for a medal over the longer events.   

The steeple in the U18 NZ national champs netted him a bronze medal while his 1500 was less than a second from the Southland B15 record set back in 1989 by Eddie Crowe.   Sydney was going to be his last chance to claim the record.

But not to be.

With a very disjointed track season and the disappointment of cancelled events and missed opportunities behind him, the St Pauls runner is now looking forward to a non-Covid crosscountry season.   

Here’s hoping.