By Erin Bishop  June 20 2011

Two future stars of New Zealand athletics took out the top two titles on offer at the New Zealand Secondary Schools' Cross Country Championships in Ashburton on Saturday.

Declan Wilson from Auckland Grammar School won the senior boys' 6000m race, while Rebekah Greene from St Hilda's Collegiate in Dunedin won the senior girls' 4000m race in 13.43 minutes.
Event organiser Trevor Cochrane, head of Ashburton College's sport department, said both were names to watch in the future.
Greene left for Europe yesterday to compete on the European circuit, while Mr Cochrane described Wilson as an exciting young talent in the same category as New Zealand legend John Walker in the 1970s.
Wilson took out Saturday's title at the Tinwald Domain in a time of 18.07 minutes, well clear of Matt Baxter from New Plymouth Boys' High School, who finished in 18.41 minutes, while Greene's time of 13.43 minutes was almost a minute quicker clear of her nearest rival, Jaye Atkin of Rangiora High School.
Mr Cochrane said most of the races had clear winners and there were no real upsets, with the majority of the titles going home with North Island athletes.
The ash cloud from the Chilean volcanic eruption, which hampered flights around the country last week, did reduce the field down from the expected 1076 ath-
letes.
"We may have had up to 100 people less than what entered due to the ash but it could have been a whole lot worse and a lot of teams made the effort to travel by bus and ferry, even from Auckland," Mr Cochrane said.
Others took the gamble that flights would be resuming, and they did.
"So it made the whole competition what I would call a New Zealand secondary schools championship rather than a glorified South Island secondary schools championship," he said.
Perfect running conditions greeted competitors, with temperatures hovering around 8 degrees and zero wind-chill factor.
"We couldn't have asked for better conditions," Mr Cochrane said.
Results for Ashburton College competitors:
Senior boys – Jack McDonald 28th; George McDonald 95th; Nick Ralston 181st.
Senior girls – Livvie Kennedy 100th.
Year nine boys – Matthew Beveridge 22nd.
Year nine girls – Jessie Thomson 51st; Caitlin Johnston 93rd.
Thomas Holmes from Mt Hutt College finished 25th in the boys 6000m.

Pictured: National secondary schools' senior girls' cross country champion Rebekah Greene from St Hilda's Collegiate in Dunedin heads to the finish line nearly a minute clear of her nearest rival.