Athletics New Zealand Media Release - 6 September 2010

CROATIA
IAAF Continental Cup, Split – 4/5 September 2010
4 September: Nikki Hamblin is on target for a bold showing at the Commonwealth Games, following a personal best 800m run at the IAAF Continental Cup meeting in Split Croatia. Hamblin finished seventh in 1m 59.66s, to better her previous best of 2m 00.90s in Brasschaat Belgium in July last year.
Toni Hodgkinson holds the New Zealand national record of 1m 58.25s, from the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
5 September: Nikki Hamblin was sixth in the 1500m in 4m 22.45s, Adrian Blincoe was sixth in the 3000m in 7m 57.67s, Valerie Adams won the shot put with 20.86m and Stuart Farquhar was fifth in the javelin throw with 78.29m.
It was the first time that Adams has beaten her arch rival Nadzeya Ostapchuk of Belarus this year and she could have won on all of her four attempts (20.70m, 20.86m, 20.76m, 20.56m). Ostapchuk could only manage 20.18m for second with Lijiao Gong of China third with 20.13m.
Adams said that having patience is paying off.
“Just having the patience with each throw will bring the lot on. Today was a good flow, I felt really good, felt strong, felt fast and it was just bound to happen, I know that I had the potential of throwing 20.50m, but it was just a matter of doing it,” she said.
“I was very ecstatic; I was able to pull through all four throws over 20.50m and could have won it on all four. I’ve got so much more to improve on and looking forward to next time I’m out there.”

USA, OREGON
Hood to Coast 317km Relay – 27/28 August 2010
The 12 man Ariki team from Dunedin finished third out of 1000 teams in the relay from Mt Hood to the Pacific Ocean. The team of Eddie Smith, Max Smith, Xaviour Walker, Tim Dobier, Brent Halley, Nathan Baxter, Callan Moody, James List, Chris Weddell, Alastair Chisnall, Greg Brockbank and Chris Tipper covered the distance in 19h 7m 38s. The winning team recorded 17h 24m 16s.

Emmitsburg, Maryland
Mount St. Mary’s 5km cross country dual – 3 September 2010
Laura Sinclair of George Mason University was third in 18m 11s.

Virginia Beach Half Marathon – 5 September 2010
Fiona Docherty finished second in the Rock’n’Roll half marathon in 1h 15m 39s. Won by Madoka Ogi of Japan in 1h 14m 17s, with Lyubov Denisova of Russia third in 1h 16m 45s. This is the second straight runner up placing by Docherty having finished second in the Chicago Rock’n’Roll half marathon early last month in 1h 14m 42s.

SLOVENIA
World Mountain Running Championships, Kamnik – 5 September 2010
The four strong New Zealand team competed at the World Mountain Running Championships in Kamnik, Slovenia on Sunday morning 5 September. With a new record number of countries participating at 40 and a record number of participants it was the strongest World Championship event ever.
Ruby Muir ran for New Zealand in the Junior Women's race over 4.5km with 430m+. She started conservatively but after half way moved strongly through field and finished an excellent 11th place. It was her first World Championship event and signals a good future in the event.
With no representative in the Junior Men's race, Anna Frost was next to compete and showed her preparation on the European circuit of Mountain Running was a good move as she started strongly on the 20 - 25% gradient steep section of the course and held her ground over the flatter final 3k to arrive in 18th position. Her race was 8.5km with 1035m+. Team member Jonathan Wyatt had his wife competing for Italy in the Senior Women's race where she finished 6th and helped her Italian team win the team title.
The final race of the day saw Jonathan Wyatt and James Coubrough competing for New Zealand over 12km with 1295m+. With Jonathan preferring the uphill only tracks that are held every second year he hoped to repeat his win from two years ago in Crans Montana, Switzerland. The pace at the start was very fast with a group of 6 Eritrean and 5 Ugandan athletes splitting up the field taking only one other Turkish and Mexican runner with them.
On arriving to the steep section Jonathan started to move through the field on the 25% plus gradient of this challenging mountain track. The deficit was too great to overcome and Jonathan had to settle for 8th position making up places in the final two flatter kilometres as well and coming close to the 7th placed Ahmed Aslan from Turkey in the final metres. James Coubrough started more conservatively but twisted his knee on the technical mountain track and lost places as he battled up to the finish line 1300 vertical metres above the starting point for 93rd position.
Earlier on in the day in the Open race Pat Meffan and Cliff Bowman raced to 4th and 2nd place respectively fresh from their bronze medal and 6th placing respectively at the World Masters Championships held in Poland one week before.
Jonathan Wyatt

ITALY
Padova – 3 September 2010
Olympic Games 1500m silver medallist Nick Willis is shaping up well for the Commonwealth Games with a 1m 46.89s clocking over 800m in Padova Italy.
Willis finished fourth, Antonio Manuel Reina of Spain winning in 1m 46.51s from Andrew Ellerton of Canada 1m 46.77s.

ITALY
Roverto – 31 August 2010
Stuart Farquhar won the javelin with a throw of 79.85m, beating Igor Janik of Poland 78.61m and Dmytro Kosynskyy of Ukraine 77.51m.

AUSTRIA
Kitzbuehelerhornlauf, Kitzbuehel – 29 August 2010
12.9km rising 1234m
Jonathan Wyatt won the mountain running race in 58m 59s, a week out from competing in the world mountain running championships in Slovenia.
Wyatt, also won in 2000 in 55m 58s (record), 2001 56m 35s, 2005 58m 17s and 2008 58m 51s.

BELGIUM
Antwerp Gala Merksem – 28 August 2010
Monique Williams was sixth in the 100m in 11.92s (+1.0) and second in the 200m in 23.84s (-0.1).

AUSTRALIA
Gold Coast Winter Series – 3 September 2010
Rebecca Wardell 100m hurdles 14.33s (-0.1), long jump 5.41m (+1.7), javelin 39.08m, 200m 24.72s (+1.0). Andrea Miller 100m 12.20s (+1.1), 100m No. 2 race 12.15s (+0.4). Veronica Torr 100m 12.55s (+1.1).

ENGLAND
British Athletic League Final, Copthall – 5 September 2010
Monique Williams, second in the 100m in 11.92s (-0.2).

Anna Frost wins Bronze at World Long Distance Mountain Running Championships
On Saturday 21st August 2010 the Pikes Peak Ascent was run in clear conditions with a large international field competing for the championship event.
From Manitou Springs, Colorado, USA, runners set off to climb 2,382 meters, (7,815’) to the summit of Pikes Peak over a distance of 21kms.
The elevation at the start is 1,920m (6,300') and the summit is at 4302m (14,115') - much higher than Mount Cook/Aoraki. The Ascent has very few stretches which are not going uphill with the average percent grade being 11%.
The women’s race was a battle, with Brandy Erholtz from the USA coming in (2:41:38) a short 13 seconds in front of Kim Dobson (USA), followed by Anna Frost (NZ) 54 seconds later. After a 2hour 41min difficult ascent with little oxygen it was a dramatic finish.
Glenn Randall from Colorado, USA won the men’s race to the top in a record time of 2:09:33, a clear winner, followed by Marc Launstein 2:12:19 and Ricky Gates 2:16:44 from the USA.
Pikes Peak Ascent first-timer Anna Frost coming home a very strong third said that her “head was spinning at the top, plus my feet were cramping, other than that I loved the race and was very pleased with my run”.

WHANGAMATA
Whangamata Half Marathon – 4 September 2010
Kyle MacDonald won the half marathon in 1h 10m 41s while his twin brother Iain won the associated 10km in 33m 43s.
In a close finish Paul Crowhurst was second in the half in 1h 10m 44s with Craig Kirkwood third in 1h 10m 54s. Mikki Williden won the women’s half in 1h 23m 40s, from Jessica Lawson 1h 26m 30s. Garit Read was second in the 10km in 33m 58s.

HASTINGS
Hastings Marathon – 4 September 2010
Russell Hewitt won the marathon, in extremely cold with gale force winds off snow covered hills conditions, in 3h 3m 8s. Erin Furness won the women’s section in 3h 3m 28s. Graeme Jones was impressive in the conditions winning the marathon walk in 4h 2m 5s, from Peter Zwart 4h 33m 55s.

WELLINGTON
Waterfront 5km Series – 31 August 2010
Hamish Carson won in 15m 12s, from Matt Harrop 16m 50s. Stephanie Mackenzie was the first woman in 18m 13s, Bernie Portenski was second in 18m 57s.

CHRISTCHURCH
The New Zealand Road Championships to be held at Spencer Park on Saturday were cancelled as a result of the earthquake in Christchurch in the early hours of Saturday.
Being in Christchurch with the Auckland team and experiencing the earthquake was a horrendous experience. The Auckland team were at the Hotel So in Cashel Street and ended up stranded in the hotel for most of Saturday before shifting to a motel in Riccarton and flying out as scheduled on Sunday morning.
At least the chief referee of the meeting Kevin Jago didn’t have to continue to worry about a large puddle on the course that he was trying to drain on Friday afternoon. The cancellation brought back memories of the Rotorua Marathon in 1999 that had to be abandoned after torrential rain leading up to the start time of the race had washed out parts of the course at the back of the Lake.

GEOFF SHAW APPOINTED CROSS COUNTRY & ROAD SELECTOR
Geoff Shaw has been appointed to the cross country and road selectors panel replacing Craig Motley who resigned recently. Shaw joins Kevin O’Sullivan and Barry Ellis on the panel.
Shaw represented New Zealand at the 1986 world cross country championships in Switzerland. He won or was placed in 20 national cross country, road and track and field championships. He set national under 20 records and secondary school records.
Shaw is currently the President of the NZSSAA and has been an executive member since 2005.

OBITUARY
Ted (Edward William) Guy of Waharoa died on 31 August 2010 aged 80.
Ted was born in Matamata on 9th January 1930, and died suddenly while on a short break with his wife Eva in Rotorua.
Ted was a stalwart of Waikato Bay of Plenty athletics, as an official, administrator, coach, manager and competitor. He regularly officiated at Porritt Stadium in the summer and at the cross country and road courses during the winter. As late as July this year he was the marksman and starter at the North Island cross country championships in Taupo. He attended Waharoa School from 1936 to 1943 and then Matamata College. His first job was a grocery boy and then he worked at the milk factory in Waharoa. Ted then worked on the construction of the power pylons through the Waikato from Karapiro. He returned to the milk factory driving the milk tankers before joining the Post Office in the exchange. He was later postmaster at first Walton and then the Matamata Post Office, before taking an early retirement. But he has never retired remaining active right up to Tuesday last week. He has been involved with the Waharoa Children’s athletics for 49 years and a member of the Matamata Harrier Club. He was made a Life Member of both clubs. Ted was a competitive race walker and he won the 2008 New Zealand M75-79 10km road walking title in Hamilton in 1h 19m 19s, while Eva won the W75-79 title in 1h 27m 15s.
Ted was an official course measurer for Waikato Bay of Plenty and was chairperson of the Waharoa Community and District Committee and was involved with the Matamata Community Chest. He was accorded Life Membership of Athletics Waikato Bay of Plenty and in the 2002 Queen’s Birthday honours was awarded a Queen’s Service Medal QSM for services to the community.