Monique shows winning way at Colgate games | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

We all see it at sporting events involving youngsters - parents promising some "choice rewards" if their Johnny or Mary delivers a gold or two.

So with an event as big as the North Island Colgate Games which involved 1284 athletes in Hastings at the weekend, yours truly expected to hear plenty of promises and see a bit of coin changing hands as we strolled around a packed Hawke's Bay Regional Sports Park.

Yours truly was full of admiration for Hastings Athletics Club 10-year-old Monique Way who won golds in her 1500 and 800m finals and a bronze in the medley relay where she ran the 800m leg. Way completed her busy weekend with a 10th placing in the 400 metres.

The Te Mata School year six student admitted her mother had given her a big incentive - she could choose a dinner of her choice tonight. We were expecting her to nominate a fast-food outfit such as Subway, McDonald's, Pizza Hutt or Domino's Pizza.

She fooled us big time when she revealed her choice - macaroni cheese.

We had found a disciplined athlete obviously destined for the big time if she could make those sort of sacrifices at such a young age. She must have had a few other secrets to her success as well.

"I train a lot ... I run around the block," Way said.

"Even when I'm on holiday at the beach I do a lot of running on the beach."

A quick glance at her results proved her choice of fuel and training regime was paying off. Her 1500m time was 5m32s and her 800m time 2m45s.

What made those feats even more remarkable was the fact Way was competing at her first Colgate Games after taking up athletics in October last year. Like so many of the starters during the weekend, she is a real sporting dynamo.

Way is a Hawke's Bay under-11 hockey representative, a Hastings inter-school cross-country champion, an orienteer, a swimmer for the Trojans club at Clive, a tennis player and a cricketer. When Way isn't doing sporting stuff she will more than likely be found doing Girl Guides activities.

She hopes to repeat her weekend's gold medal-winning feats at next year's Colgate Games in Tauranga. It will be interesting if she requests the same payment as she did yesterday.

Way was one of 14 gold medal winners from the Hastings club which was the most successful of the four Bay clubs. It had the biggest contingent of the four with 108 athletes and also won 16 silver medals and 28 bronze.

Napier club officials had plenty to celebrate. In addition to their four medals won in the 10-14 age group on Friday, Napier won a further three medals during Saturday's and yesterday's events.

Twelve-year-old Ethan Phillips, who won silvers in his high jump and discus events on Friday, won bronze in the long jump yesterday. Another 12-year-old, Hannah Delamere, who won bronze in the shot put on Friday, collected another bronze in the discus on Saturday with a 26.05m effort.

Yesterday Napier's 12-year-old girls 4 x 100m relay team captured silver.

Among Dannevirke's medal winners was Jessika Lawson with a gold in discus.

While the Central Hawke's Bay club didn't win any medals in the 10-14 age group events their athletes won plenty of placings in the pennant events for seven to nine years competitors, or "little whipper-snappers" as the announcer called them.

The successful CHB starters were Caleb Ireland, Macey Rusden, Brock Gunson, Danielle Hopa-Buxton and Francis Flack.