Athletics New Zealand Media Release - Weekly Roundup
WORLD ATHLETES OF THE YEAR
At Monte-Carlo over the weekend 23 year old Jamaican Usain Bolt and USA’s 24 year old Sanya Richards were crowned as the male and female world athletes of the Year 2009.
Bolt captivated the attention of the sporting world with his world 100m and 200m titles both in world record times of 9.58s and 19.19s. Richards dominated the women’s 400m producing seven of the year’s 10 fastest performances and won the world title.
The coach of the year went to Clyde Hart of USA and the inaugural IAAF world journalist of the year went to Gustav Schwenk of Germany.
New Zealand’s Valerie Vili, who dominated the women’s shot put producing nine of the year’s top ten performances and retained her world crown and won the world athletic final in Greece was a finalist for the female athlete of the year.
INVERCARGILL
New Zealand Marathon Championship
Four years on from winning the New Zealand marathon titles, Matt Dravitzki and Shireen Crumpton were back in action winning the national titles in Invercargill yesterday.
They both won in Christchurch in 2005 and in the 100th anniversary of the Riverton to Invercargill race were decisive victors again.
Dravitzki, from Wellington, led throughout to finish in 2h 20m 45s, nearly ten minutes ahead of fellow Wellingtonian Dave Parsons.
Parsons came through well over the second half to claim second in 2h 30m 13s. Gavin Stevens (53) of Auckland was third in 2h 34m 22s. Next to finish was Michael Pugh of Tauranga in 2h 36m 56s followed by Takapuna’s Jon Healey in 2h 36m 59s and Canterbury’s Dave King in 2h 38m 27s. The course record is 2h 12m 20s set by John Campbell in 1987.
Otago’s Crumpton, who won last year’s Gold Coast marathon in 2h 38m 16s and was 44th at the world championships in Berlin in August, was also a clear winner in 2h 44m 54s. Gabrielle O’Rourke of Wellington made a big move over the closing stages to claim second in 2h 48m 43s with Sarah Biss of Rotorua third in 2h 49m 29s. Next in the women was Lara Phillips in 2h 53m 12s, followed by Julie Wilson in 2h 58m 47s and Suzanne Cuthbert 3h 0m 13s. O’Rourke holds the women’s course record of 2h 37m 58s set in 1994.
Crumpton set out at a pace to break the record and claim the $10,000.00 on offer if the record was broken. But the breezy conditions, and having to do it on her own, took its toll and she settled back over the second half to concentrate on the winning the title.
KERIKERI
Kerikeri Half Marathon
Andy Kilding of Takapuna won the annual half marathon from Okaihau to Kerikeri on Saturday in 1h 11m 26s. Johan Vanhoovels was second in 1h 13m 23s three minutes ahead of his Pakuranga clubmate Geoff Rickerby.
Lydia O’Donnell of Auckland won the women’s half marathon in 1h 17m 25s, nearly two minutes ahead of Olympic Games triathlete Samantha Warriner of Whangarei. Former Auckland marathon winner Ady Ngawati of Whangarei was third in 1h 19m 40s. O’Donnell was third in the New Zealand W19 5km road championship in Dunedin in early September.
AUCKLAND
Frazer Wickes and Kerry Charlesworth won the athletic section honours at the Auckland College Sport Awards. The distance running awards went to John Schrueder and Kimberley Burke. The multisport awards went to Michael Poole and Sophie Corbidge.
COROMANDEL
Offroad 32km Kauri Run
Men: Sjors Corporaal (Galatea) 2:25:35 1, Kerry Suter (Hamilton) 2:29:26 2, Chris Morrissey (Papamoa) 2:37:54 3, Colin Earwaker (Rotorua) 2:41:59 4, Darren Ashmore (Rotorua) 2:49:03 5.
Women: Annika Smail (Rotorua) 3:06:10 1, Michelle Hyland (Te Awamutu) 3:07:35 2, Dawn Tuffery (Te Awamutu) 3:13:09 3, Kirsten Milne (Te Awamutu) 3:15:29 4, Rebecca Smith (Rotorua) 3:29:10.
HAMILTON
Battle of the Cities, round two.
Elizabeth Lamb of Waitakere bettered the performance standard for the world junior championships to be held in Canada next year with a clearance of 1.83m in the high jump on Saturday.
The 18 year old was competing in round two of the annual Battle of the Cities athletic competition. Lamb, who is the New Zealand senior and W19 high jump champion, was three centimetres higher than the entry standard for the championships in Moncton Canada next July and just two centimetres short of the performance standard to the New Delhi Commonwealth Games in October.
“I’m really happy with that, first competition of the season after a winter of hard work which has paid off and will continue to do so,” said a delighted Lamb.
“I was so close on my third attempt at 1.85m, my heels just clipped the bar off,” she added.
Also eying a place in the team to the junior championships were Cameron French and Michael Cochrane who had a close finish in the M19 400m hurdles. French (17) won in 55.12s, from Cochrane (18) who recorded 55.21s. The standard to the 13th world junior championships is 53.34s.
Campbell Wu is not too far away from setting a New Zealand M16 300m hurdles record. In an almost solo effort Wu recorded 39.60s. The standard for a record is 38.00s. In the W16 300m hurdles Madison Gipson clocked in at 45.43s, close to the standard for a record of 43.50s.
Carl Van der Speck just held out Jeffrey Thumath in the 100m in a wind assisted time of 10.53s. Rochelle Coster won the women’s 60m and the 100m where she was timed at 12.11s. Ben Potter won the 400m in 48.05s. Katherine Camp of Te Awamutu was impressive in the W19 400m running 56.45s, heading in Katrina Anderson who came through in 57.60s. Joseph Millar of Tauranga captured the M19 60m in 7.06s and the 100m in 10.76s.
Aaron Pulford showed good form leading up to the New Zealand secondary schools championships in Timaru next month with a convincing win in the 1500m.
Pulford was chased hard by Mohamed Ali over the final 200m, but held on to win in 3m 55.39s.
Pulford said that he has been training hard.
“I’ve been training heavily and strongly and not targeting this race, just running it as training,” he said.
“I’m aiming to run a good 3000m time at the schools champs I just hope the weather is good. I ran a solo 8m 28s the other night and that felt good, so I’m hoping to run a lot faster than that,” he added.
NELSON
Saxton Field Hester shield day 1 Nelson v Marlborough
Weather warm with light winds mostly legal
Alex Jordan M19 100m/200m 10.7s (+1.5) and 21.7s (+1.5) also 49.6s 4 x 400m relay.
Alistair Adams M16 200m 23.2s (-0.3)
Hazel Bowering Scott W16 200m 25.9s (-0.1)
Andrew Moore M19 high jump 1.97m, Cody Thomas 1.90m, triple jump 12.55m (+1.4).
Wade Cooper age 14, M16 triple jump 12.45m (+0.7).
Kim Hogarth 3000m 8m 29.4s. Ewoud Noodeloos M19 3000m 8m 59.4s.
Courtney Clarke W19 discus throw 38.26m, Missy Seymour 38.09m.
Campbell O'Neill M19 javelin throw 53.85m, Chris Line 50.18m.
CHRISTCHURCH
David Ambler won the sprint double at the Athletics Canterbury meeting at QEII on Saturday. Facing a stiff breeze, Ambler clocked 10.73s (-2.0) over 100m and 21.73s (-3.0) over 200m. Rebecca Wardell won the 400m in 55.98s.
15 year old Christpher Wiremu had a busy afternoon of athletics, winning the M16 100m 11.82s (-2.4), 100m hurdles 13.89s (-2.4), long jump 6.49m (+2.8) and the triple jump 12.29m (+3.0).
DUNEDIN
From last week 14 November, Rebekah Greene set an Otago W15-16 400m record of 58.12s. Jim Flynn set an Otago M75-79 5000m record of 27m 30.53s.
Tim Lawrence won the M16 100m in 11.34s (+0.2), Daniel Balchin the M19 1500m in 4m 01.62s, Marshall Hall the senior discus throwing 46.12m, John Gilmour the M19 long jump with 6.60m (-2.1) and Greer Alsop the W16 long jump with 5.24m (-0.4). 12 year old Meg McKay set an Otago 13 high jump record of 1.57m.
On Saturday Lauren Wilson won the W19 100m in 12.63s (+1.1) and the 200m in 25.79s (+3.5). Rebekah Greene won the W16 3000m in 9m 58.25s, while Daniel Balchin won the M19 in 8m 51.68s. Glen Ballam from Southland won the M19 800m in 1m 55.26s.
OVERSEAS NEWS
Alice Taylor finished 13th in the NAIA cross country championships at Vancouver Washington, recording 18m 27s for the 5km. In New York at the ECAC/IC4A cross country championships Rochelle Sceats finished second in the 5km race in 17m 33s with Laura Sinclair fourth in 17m 45s.
From Australia, Veronica Torr won the heptathlon on the Gold Coast over the weekend scoring 5195 points (100m hurdles 14.49s (-0.1), high jump 1.66m, shot put 12.52m, 200m 25.19s (-0.3), long jump 5.40m (+3.0), javelin throw 34.88m, 800m 2m 31.50s).
In the NSW 3000m championships at Sydney Olympic Park, Kellie Palmer was third in 9m 37.74s and Shaun Krawitz was 10th in the senior men’s in 8m 23.24s.