This Year’s Sporting Action

Words by Mandy Anderson DIRECTOR OF SPORT

The school sporting year always gets off to a colourful start with the whole school athletics event, in equal parts a celebration of athletic success and participation. Outstanding individual efforts resulted in Meg Edwards breaking two records and Una Kinajil-Reding setting the bar high in throwing events for Para Athletes.

The school Swimming Sports were altered this year due to non-COVID-19 related factors and the Competitors Only session became a chance to celebrate our top swimmers. Those present witnessed some outstanding individual results including Florence Nelson (Yr 10) breaking four records and Emma Schroder (Yr 13) breaking five records.

While the year started with much sporting promise, the summer season was abruptly cut short and sporting campaigns were unable to finish due to COVID-19. The cancellation of Summer Tournament Week brought huge disappointment for both girls and coaches, however, let’s not forget what was achieved in the shortened summer season of 2020:

Rowing

At the South Island Secondary Schools’ Championships, Rangi Ruru were awarded Top Girls’ School and 3rd School overall. The squad achieved four Golds, six Silvers and three Bronzes, with many of our crews racing in the age group above to give them a challenge for Maadi, which was ultimately cancelled.

Tennis

A joint initiative with St Margaret’s College saw 20 developing Tennis players having expert coaching each week.

Touch

SuperTouch Tahi were finalists in the weekly competition (with the final being cancelled), and were crowned Canterbury Secondary Schools’ Girls’ Champions. The team will contest the NZSS Championships in Rotorua in December. A growth in Touch numbers saw three junior teams and two Supertouch teams playing on Wednesday afternoons.

SEVEN’s

The inaugural Rangi 7s team competed in the Condors qualifying Tournament in November. Outstanding effort & commitment by the team saw them reach the final - but more importantly was the enjoyment the girls had along the way.

Waterpolo

The Senior A team won the Canterbury Secondary Schools’ Senior Girls Competition after winning all games in the first round. A long time since Rangi have held the Senior title in Waterpolo! The Junior team are performing strongly in the Term Four weekly competition, currently placing 1st.

Surfing & Dragon Boating

It was awesome to see the return of Dragon Boating with an enthusiastic group of girls training hard to compete at the Girls only Secondary School event; and Surfing continued to be a favourite Term One activity with over 35 girls hitting the beach each Tuesday afternoon.

Inaugural 7s team in action at Nga Puna Wai

In the midst of preparing for winter sport, we hit lockdown and turned to technology and online trainings to aid our young sportswomen to prepare for the winter season. Our winter sport coaches alongside our Strength & Conditioning Coach, took on this challenge with vigour, providing innovative ways to keep our girls engaged in their preparation for winter sport. When the girls finally got back to the turf, court, field and the gym, they were physically prepared and raring to go having created positive connections during their time in lockdown.

With the resumption of competitions, some sporting normality returned. With Winter Tournament Week replaced by South Island and local events, our hockey and netball teams got to experience tournament environments, while our basketball, cycling and football teams were disappointed to have these opportunities taken away.

Highlights of a challenging 2020 winter sports season include: of Division 4, winning the final 10-0. wholeheartedly engaged in sport!

Cycling Hockey Netball

At the Canterbury Team Time Trial Championships, our U16 team won Gold and our U20 team won Silver. Charlotte Spurway placed 2nd in Cycling NZ’s U19 Criterium National Championships, which were held around the streets of Christchurch in November

Football

Winner of the Wednesday Div 2 It was 3rds all round for our top three Hockey teams – with the 1st XI securing 3rd in both the Canterbury Hockey SSL competition and Hockey New Zealand’s Southern Premiership; the 2nd XI placing 3rd in the SSP Div 1 and our 3rd XI placing 3rd in the SSP Div2 competition. A shout out to the Rangi Blue team on their domination Wonderful to see our seniors

competition. Senior A placed 5th in SuperNet and 7th in the Canterbury Regional Senior Tournament. In other Wednesday competitions, U17A (Rangi F) won B Division; 1BB team won Junior Div 2 and the 10A team placed 3rd in Junior Div 1. Our 10A team placed 4th in the Canterbury Regional Junior Tournament and the 9A team placed 6th.

If nothing else, the 2020 sporting year has helped our young sportswomen to learn to be adaptable and practise gratitude. The quote “play every game like it’s your last” never rang truer than this year, and is certainly something to remember as we continue to navigate sport in this COVID-19 environment.