By Keri Welham
Two best friends, two pairs of lucky pink socks, and two matching cross country gold medals.
Year 7 girls’ Zespri AIMS Games cross country champion Lucie Thomson, 11 of Paraparaumu Beach School, and Year 8 girls’ champion Lucia Harfitt, 12 of Raumati Beach School, bought their matching socks at a local mall in Mount Maunganui the day before the race.
“I will wear them again next time,” said Lucie after she broke the AIMS record with a time of 11:01:83 – 25 seconds ahead of the next competitor home, Lou McDonald Limacher of Rāroa Normal Intermediate in Johnsonville. Third was Maggie Barke of Kapakapanui School in Waikanae.
Wild weather was no match for the incredible athletes hitting the Waipuna Park hills during an action-packed cross country competition at the Zespri AIMS Games in Tauranga.
Lucia led the field of 164 Year 8 girls, with a time of 10:59:62, ahead of Mila Moore of Cambridge Middle School and Sophie Reid of Aquinas College.
Lucie and Lucia train together on the hills above Wellington where they’ve encountered plenty of the mud that defined the AIMS course this year.
Under persistent rain, athletes slipped to their knees to crawl up the infamous Waipuna Park hill known as The Grunt, and sodden shoes were abandoned on the track.
The starting line of each race was split so those with spikes were divided from those running barefoot or in sports shoes. After about 200m, they merged into one field.
Course co-ordinator Malcolm Taylor, who has been at every AIMS since the week-long intermediate-aged sporting tournament began in 2004, said dominant performances at AIMS were noted by spotters from US schools.
Results in previous years suggested bare feet had an edge but, in 2025, the four individual champions wore spikes.
Cross country is one of 27 sporting codes at this year’s Zespri AIMS Games, which is welcoming more than 14,000 intermediate-aged athletes to Tauranga this week.