13th World Championship In Athletics, Daegu Korea 27 August to 4 September 2011

Day 1 27 August: Decathlon: Brent Newdick got away to a confident start to the two days of competition by winning his heat of the 100m in 11.00s. Raced into a slight head wind of 0.2 mps, Newdick headed in Leonel Suarez of Cuba by seven hundredths of a second. Newdick scored 861 points for 16th place after the first event. Ashton Eaton of USA was the fastest from the four heats with 10.46s (985) from fellow country man and defending champion Trey Hardee 10.55s (963).

In the long jump Newdick cleared 7.31m (+0.7) in his first attempt, followed by 7.14m (+0.4) and a no jump, with his toe 10.3cm over on take off. For his 7.31m he scored 888 points to take his total to 1749 improving to 11th. Eaton with 7.46m held the lead on 1910.

Newdick was out to 13.75m in the first round of the shot put. Unfortunately he fouled his second attempt when his foot was just over the top of the front board. Newdick appealed to no avail and the distance was not measured. His third attempt was 13.25m. He was nearly a metre down on his personal best and the resulting points of 713 for a total of 2462 had him in 17th place.

He cleared 1.96m in the high jump, just narrowly missing on his last attempt to equal his personal best at 1.99m.

He finished with a 49.95s clocking in the 400m for a first day for a first day total of 4046 and 18th place. This is just 29 points short of his first day total at the Delhi Commonwealth Games where he went on to win the silver medal.

Eaton leads day one with 4444 ahead of Hardee on 4393.

Newdick said he started off with a great race in reflecting on his first day.

“The time wasn’t quite where I wanted it to be, but everyone was down a bit. I warmed up really well for the long, got a good one first up and then just started to run out of a bit of steam. Didn’t quite hit the big one it was a slight foul so that was the first bit of unluckiness of the day and then on to the shot put. In my second attempt two officials ruled it OK and two said it was a foul, they should have measured it and we could have protested later, but not to be. Had a little bit of a sore finger for the last couple of weeks which I don’t think was a big factor, but confidence wise I didn’t get in the right position. The shot put is not a big scorer so I was only down about 20 points,” he said.

Then it was back to the Athletes Village for five hours before returning for the final two events on day one.

“What a way to warm up for the high jump, awesome display, fireworks and presentations (opening ceremony), that really got everyone going and I knew I was ready for a big high jump and once again just a bit unlucky with getting an equal PB, but a season’s best and best jump in a while.

“The 400m in 49.95s, not the end of the world, once again hoping for a little bit more but we’re just off the pace for an overall PB,” said Newdick.

Day 2 28 August: Decathlon; The second day of the decathlon started with the 110m hurdles and Newdick finished seventh in his heat in 14.86s, in the discus he threw 45.65m, just under two metres short of his best. In the pole vault, where his best is 4.80m, he cleared 4.30m and 4.50m at his first attempt, passed at 4.60m and missed his three attempts at 4.70m. His javelin was out to 55.69m and he finished with a 4m 47.30s 1500m.
He finished 19th with a total points score of 7761 well down on his personal best of 8114. Trey Hardee of USA retained his world title with a score of 8607, 102 better than his compatriot Ashton Eaton.

Newdick said that he got a good start in the hurdles but didn’t quite finish it off.

“The time was consistent with what I’ve done all year. I pulled out a reasonable throw on the discus, probably my best event for the weekend. I then needed to come back and seal off a good score. I looked to the pole vault. I got a safety height in and then went for a big one and didn’t quite pull it off. It meant that everything was slowly slowly getting tougher and tougher. I learnt a lot this weekend and I’m looking forward to a new season,” said Newdick.

Valerie Adams easily qualifies for final of the shot put
It took just one attempt for Valerie Adams to qualify for the final of the shot put tomorrow evening at the world championships in athletics in Daegu Korea.

Requiring a throw of 18.65m, Adams looked effortless in sending the shot out to 19.79m as Adams seeks to win the world title for the third consecutive time.

Her arch rival Nadzeya Ostapchuk of Belarus also qualified with her first attempt of 19.11m.

Disaster for Nikki Hamblin
Running in the heats of the 1500m Nikki Hamblin was in a tight bunch down the finishing straight striving to finish in the top six to qualify for the final. In trying to surge through a gap Hamblin clipped the heel of a runner who had slowed slightly in front of her and down she went sprawled face down on the track. She eventually picked herself up and walked to the finish in 4m 36.70s. Her heat was won by Hannah England of Great Britain in 4m 13.45s.
In Berlin two years ago at the world champs Hamblin tripped and fell in the heats of the 800m and went on to excel in the 1500m. This time Hamblin falls in the 1500m but still has the 800m to go.

Hamblin said that she is an extremely aggressive runner and this may have been her downfall.

“All you care about is the finish line but by that point (50 metres out) we were so close together, you have to go for it, you always have to go for it. I hit the girl in front who was starting to come back a little bit and I was on the floor.

“I’m gutted – I fell over in Berlin first round, fell over here first round, fell over in Russia at the beginning of the year. I’m kind of reluctant a little to say that Russia was my fault, this one I’m not sure. What are you going to do, there’s 50 metres to go and there are seven of you pretty much in a line, I think I was in sixth and I knew six had to qualify and I knew it would be close. Some girl starts tying up in front of you and what can you do, you can either stop and go round and lose three places or just keep trying, go for that gap and maybe I went a bit too aggressively for that gap,” said Hamblin.

NEW CALEDONIA
Nouméa Marathon – 21 August 2011
Scott Winton won in 2h 29m 10s, Johan Van Hoovels was third in 2h 32m 34s and Grant McLean seventh in 2h 52m 51s. Shireen Crumpton was third in the women’s section in 3m 0m 50s.

Winton said that he was 40 seconds off the leading two at the 4km mark. However he picked up the pace after 5km and caught the leaders at approx 7km. He sat in behind the leader Anthony Farugia of Australia until the 25km. They exchanged the lead until the 35km and the last turnaround when Winton started to put in a couple of surges before getting a small lead with 4km to go. The conditions were unseasonably cool due to low cloud cover.
“After going through a bad patch in the middle I felt better towards the end and was delighted with the win,” said Winton.

AUCKLAND
Pre-Commonwealth Youth Games Competition, Sovereign Stadium – 27 August 2011
World junior and youth shot put champion Jacko Gill opted for the discus throw and produced a New Zealand age group record at the throwers meeting at Sovereign Stadium on Saturday.

Gill sent the discus out to 62.05m to better his own national M16 record and break Christopher Mene’s 1990 M17 record of 59.82m. In less than favourable wind conditions, for throwing, Gill was over 60 meters in four of his attempts in the competition.

Damian Smuts won the senior shot put 14.51m, discus 42.87m and hammer throws 47.01m, while Ana Po’uhila Kisina won the women’s shot 15.18m and discus 46.25m with Millie McNie collecting the women’s hammer throw 49.28m. Richard Callister broke his own Auckland M16 hammer record with a throw of 54.68m.

O’Hagan’s Viaduct 5km Auckland 23 August: Andrew Haigh 15m 9s from Wayne Guest 15m 25s. Melanie Burke 17m 20s.
Rat Race 5km Takapuna 24 August: Stuart Grange 16m 2s. Tara La Grange 17m 23s.

ROTORUA
Rotovegas Half Marathon – 28 August 2011
Aaron Jackson won in 1h 11m 47s from Phil Murray 1h 15m 10s. Johanna Ottosson was the first woman in 1h 23m 36s.

DUNEDIN
Peninsula Relay – 27 August 2011
Alexandra Harriers won the handicap 38.5km relay from Leith Blue and Hill City.
Fastest legs: 1 4.4km Hamish Dobson 15m 51s, 2 3.2km Tim Dobier 12m 11s, 3 4.7km Dave Catherwood 15m 55s, 4 7.1km Lyndon Brown 21m 44s, 5 4.0km Hayden Donnelly 12m 35s, 6 7.0km Daniel Balchin 23m 12s, 7 3.2km Chris Weddell 10m 49s, 8 4.9km Tony Payne 16m 22s.