The training and dedication of Tauwhare School students paid off when they won the Schools Tractor Pull competition. Pictured from front to back is Mason Speirs, Finn Morton, Wyatt Johnson, Whare Puru, Quinn Harrison, Warren Raupita, Kersten Tau, Helena Brown, Brooklyn Smith, Lovey Teriaki, Corbin Billings, Kate Silvester, Ben Tau, Joshua Williams, Madix Knight, Charlotte Puru, Wiremu Puru, Austin Savage, Heath Rogerson and Connor Savage.
Their smiles said it all – a team of twenty Tauwhare School students pulled off a massive feat of strength on Thursday, June 27, hauling a five-tonne tractor at a rate of one metre per second to earn the Schools Tractor Pull trophy.
Tauwhare School organised the event after Fieldays organisers canned the schools tractor pull at Mystery Creek this year, hosting teams from Tauwhare, Tamahere, Puketaha, Hamilton East and Hautapu schools for the inaugural event.
The winning team pulled the Giltrap AgriZone tractor 40 metres in just 40 seconds, with the longest school haul taking 60 seconds.
“We were absolutely delighted to win the tractor pull,” said school principal Fiona Bradley. “The team has been training for weeks and had put their hearts and souls and bodies into it.”
Tamahere School, which won a previous tractor pull event at Fieldays, have a go pulling the five-tonne tractor at the Tauwhare School event.
Bradley credited the students for their committed team work and support for one another, and thanked staff and parents for their help.
“They went in to win, and they did it.”
After Fieldays stopped running its annual schools tractor pull, which was won last year by Tamahere School, Tauwhare School staff Kirsty Gilroy and Paula Brown decided to organise the competition as a fun event for primary schools, encouraging schools to submit a team of 20 students from Years 4 to 6 with a minimum of five girls.
“This is a fabulous opportunity for local schools to come together in a fun environment and encourage students to work as a team to achieve something uniquely rural – kids who can claim the honour of being able to pull a five-tonne tractor,” said Paula.
