The 200m record held by Bruce Parker of 23.00 seconds was set way back in 1975. That record was equalled in 2005 by M. Faria, but it has now fallen to Amilame Finau who ran a blistering 22.63 seconds at this year's School Athletics Champs.

Bruce noticed the new record on our Facebook page and was quick to acknowledge Amilame's fantastic run. While Parker resides in Australia, he made a trip home recently, popped in to watch the 1st XV and congratulated Amilame in person. He recounted that he was the first SJC student to compete at the National Secondary Schools Athletics Champs, and won the National 200m title that year. Parker continues to hold the 110m hurdles record at St John's College.

As you can imagine, sprint stars have a wee bit in common - namely that rugby coaches love having them on their team. Amilame is scoring tries from the wing for our 1st XV this year, and he'd do well to follow in Parker's footsteps in that code. Bruce played many seasons for Hamilton Marist and wing for Waikato, before moving to Auckland and continuing with senior rugby at Auckland Marist.

We love seeing our Old Boys come back to visit, and it was great to see these two athletes connect over their shared talent.