Athletics New Zealand - Weekly update

AUSTRALIA
Combined Events, Perth – 31 March/1 April 2011
Sarah Cowley competed in the heptathlon, and finished with a score of 4807 for six events after failing to achieve a score in the long jump.

Cowley’s performances were: 100m hurdles 14.05s (+0.4), high jump 1.77m, shot put 12.47m, 200m 25.99s (+0.5), long jump ND, javelin throw 35.00m, 800m 2m 19.29s. The competition was won by Lauren Foote with a score of 5539.

USA
California, Cal-Poly SLO Invitational, San Luis Obispo – 2 April 2011
Tour by New Zealand athletes:
Discus - Marshall Hall 1st 52.92m.
Shot put - Jerram Huston 7th 14.35m.
800m - Matt Lambert 5th 1m 53.81s, a PB by three seconds.
1,500m Heat 2 - Craig Lautenslager 3rd 4m 06.08s.

HAMILTON
North Island Secondary Schools Championships, Porritt Stadium – 2/3 April 2011
Nicholas Southgate set a North Island secondary schools pole vault record of 4.75m in also winning the New Zealand M19 junior title yesterday.
The national junior championship was washed out in Dunedin last weekend and was transferred to the schools championships.
North Harbour’s Southgate and Pascal Kethers, who have both been selected for the world youth championships in France in July, traded heights early in the competition.

Kethers cleared 4.20m, passed at 4.30m but missed at 4.40m. Southgate on the other hand cleared 4.30m, passed at 4.40m and went on to clear 4.50m and 4.75m.
His new record adds 25cm to Paul Gibbon’s 1989 record. Kerry Charlesworth of North Harbour added five centimetres to her own girls open pole vault record clearing 3.85m.

Nationally ranked athletes excelled in a spate of record breaking performances.
Declan Wilson of Auckland was in superb form breaking Dave Burridge’s 1979 record in the senior 3000m, by 4.5 seconds, with his winning run of 8m 24.19s. Burridge went on to represent New Zealand at the 1984, 1986 and 1987 world cross country championships and at the 1986 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games where he finished sixth in the 5000m.

Brad Mathas of Wanganui and Wellington’s Kieron McDonald both went under the senior 800m record, Mathas winning in 1m 51.42s.
Ariana Lord of Waikato set a record of 4m 41.16s in the junior girls 1500m, with Julian Oakley just outside the senior boys 1500m record with his time of 3m 56.62s. Siositina Hakeai of Auckland showed her strength in the senior throwing events with records of 14.56m in the shot put and 51.20m in the discus. Hakeai has also been selected for the world youth championships.
Julia Ratcliffe of Waikato extended her own open hammer throw record out to 59.56m.
Renee Moratti of Taranaki walked her way to a 2000m open walk record of 10m 57.24s. Te Houora Campbell of Wellington entered the record book with his 12.19m distance in the junior boys’ triple jump. Kyle Van der Merwe of Taranaki held a mortgage on the intermediate boys throwing events, winning the shot put, discus and javelin throw where he set a record of 60.82m. Wanagnui capped a successful two days of competition with a record of 3m 19.77s in the senior boys 4 x 400m relay.

TIMARU
South Island Secondary Schools Championships, Aorangi Park – 2/3 April 2011
Tyler Collings of Timaru Boys’ High School broke the 16 year old record of Clyde McIntosh in winning the senior boys’ 400m in 48.31s. This clipped 1.08s off McIntosh’s 1995 record. Collings also anchored Timaru Boys’ to victory in the 4 x 400m relay in 3m 29.75s. James Sandilands set a record of 1.85m in the under 15 high jump. Further highlights will be included in next Monday’s roundup.

LEVIN
Great Forest Events, Matariki Forest Waitarere Beach – 2 April 2011
Andy Bennett won the marathon in 2h 46m 54s with Ingrid Frost the first woman home in 3h 29m 16s. The half marathon went to Rees Buck in 1h 12m 16s with the women’s honours going to Wendy Cotterell-Teahan in 1h 24m 36s. The marathon walk was won by Malcolm Gray in 5h 4m 16s with the half walk taken out by Grant Dyer in 2h 13m 56s.

CHRISTCHURCH
Annual marathon will go ahead in Christchurch in June
The Christchurch SBS marathon will still take place on Sunday 5 June on an alternative course at Lincoln.
The Town Hall start and finish venue is red stickered and much of the course around the Avon River and Hagley Park is ruined.
The new course will start and finish on the Lincoln University campus and will run through residential streets before doing a circuit on rural roads surrounding Lincoln township.

MANUREWA ATHLETIC CLUB 75th ANNIVERSAY
The Manurewa Athletic and Harrier Club celebrated their 75th anniversary, at a special dinner on Saturday evening.
The club was formed in September 1935 at a public meeting held in the local Tearooms in Manurewa. The first athletic meeting was held at Jellicoe Park on the second Monday of November 1935. Among the athletes from the Club who have represented New Zealand at Olympic, Commonwealth Games and world cross country championships are Sir John Walker, Mike Ryan, Neville Scott, Heather Matthews, Millie Sampson, Geoff Pyne, Sue Haden, Shirley Barber, Kevin Taylor and Lorraine Tong. Sir John Walker gave an interesting and entertaining speech on his early days of joining the Club, his training and how the Club was pivotal to his success on the international stage.