Magic Moment: Quinn Hartley's sublime 2019 display
Today we turn the clock back to December 2019 when Quinn Hartley was a star at the National Secondary School Championships.
Southland athletics has produced many magical moments so as part of a new Tribune series we are recalling some of them. Today we turn the clock back to December 2019 when Quinn Hartley was a star at the National Secondary School Championships.
Winning three gold medals at a national championship doesn’t happen very often. Adding a meet record in atrocious conditions is even rare.
For Quinn Hartley at the 2019 national secondary schools champs it was all of the above.
Hartley was the Southland star of the champs. In fact, he was one of the stars of the whole competition.
His three golds and meet record made the Hargest 15-year-old one of the athletes of the meet and earned him selection to the NZSS Paper Team. (a rare accolade for athletes in the junior division - selected athletes do not compete anywhere but selection is an honour and gives financial grants to help travel to competitions).
On the Friday Quinn took the long jump title with a leap of 6.94, breaking a record that has stood since 1974.
Then it was the triple jump, which he won with 13.34, a win by nearly half a metre and the only athlete to go over 13m. Quinn’s third competition was the high jump and this was won with 1.94. Second was 1.83, four height progressions lower which show how dominant he was.
From season performances there was talk of all three records going and while Quinn gained only one, there was no trace of disappointment. Conditions for much of the meeting were atrocious yet that was not given as an excuse. He only did three (of six) triple jumps and passed on two of his long jumps, saving energy for high jump to come.
This was Quinn’s final year as a junior before joining the senior ranks.
“The stiffer competition will only make me go better” he said at the time.
The next year he earned silver in the high jump and long jump, even though his build-up was plagued by injuries.
The high jump of 2.08m broke the Southland senior record.
In 2021 he broke the NZ M17 long jump record, leaping 7.30, a record mark that still stands.
He was awarded Southland Athlete of the Year in 2021.
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