26 July, 2024

Takapuna Grammar Olympians showed early athletic promise

Water boy… Lukas Walton-Keim took to the water at an early age moving from kite-surfing to kite-foiling

Showing dreams really can come true, four former Takapuna Grammar School students are poised to perform on the greatest sporting stage as the Olympic Games open in Paris today.
Shotputter Jacko Gill, aged 29, is an old hand, back for his third Games. For polevaulter Eliza McCartney, 27, it is her second, after tasting bronze medal success in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, but having been plagued by injury subsequently.

Club to country… Shotputter Jacko Gill (top left) secured a silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Bottom left: With principal Simon Lamb and the TGS intermediate athletics cup in 2010. Right: With Kiwi rival Tom Walsh.

McCartney’s partner, Lukas Walton-Keim, 28, from Bayswater is competing for the first-time, with his sport, kite-foiling, new to the Games. Polevaulter Imogen Ayris, 23, is another newcomer to the Olympics. Like Gill, she medalled at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022. Gill took home a silver and Ayris a bronze.
The three field athletes are all members of the Takapuna Athletics Club and excelled at school and for their club and Auckland, winning sports cups and national titles.

Allrounder… Eliza McCartney pole-vaulting for TGS (right); playing netball for the school (top left); in an early athletics outing; and with her younger brothers, Finn (left) and Hamish, after a Weet-Bix Tryathlon

Walton-Keim has built his own strong track record in water sports, competing for both Wakatere and Takapuna Boating Clubs. From junior worlds success he moved on to international senior competition. Three other Wakatere members are Games-bound: they are sailors Josh Armit (competing in the IQFoil) and Greta Pilkington (ILCA 6), and technical officer Alistair Deaves.

Jumping to it… Imogen Ayris (above right) with a schools athletics medal. Above left: Ayris high-jumping for Takapuna Athletics Club and competing on the beam for North Harbour Gymnastics, aged 10.