John Gilmour (Hill City) wins the boys aged 15 and 16 long
jump at the Caledonian Ground on Saturday with a leap of
6.55m. Photo by Linda Robertson.
New Zealand 100m champion Chris Donaldson (Hill City) is
adopting a low-key approach to athletics this season but is
still keen to retain his national title.
Donaldson is one of three athletes who have won five New
Zealand senior men's 100yd or 100m titles.
The others are George Smith (Auckland) 1898-1904, and Gus
Nketia (Auckland) 1991-96.
His athletics goal this season is to join 1956 Olympian
Morrie Rae (Auckland), who won six titles between 1954 and
1959.
His main target at the moment is to make the New Zealand
bobsled team for the Winter Olympics at Vancouver in 2010.
Donaldson was in the New Zealand team for the summer Olympics
in 1996 and 2000.
He was in outstanding early season form at the Caledonian
Ground on Saturday when he convincingly won the 100m in
10.44sec from training partner Cory Innes (Taieri) 10.54sec.
There was a wind reading of 5.7m per second.
"The record for the Caledonian Ground track is 10.40sec,"
Donaldson said.
"This was the fastest early season time I've ever run."
He has restricted his track training to three times a week
and is doing more power work, weights and plyometrics.
Donaldson has added 4kg and now weighs 88kg, a weight that is
preparing him for bobsled racing.
But it is also helping his sprinting.
"It's the best I've felt for eight years," Donaldson said.
"My body is more robust and I have more power," he said.
"I've stopped my explosive work on the track and am getting
more rhythm into my running."
It was a day for the experienced sprinters with Anna Smythe
(Hill City) and Innes also running impressively.
Like Donaldson they are members of coach Brent Ward's sprint
stable.
Smythe (30) led from the start to convincingly win the
women's 100m in 11.72sec from club mate Fiona Hely
(12.30sec).
But her best performance came later in the meeting in the
200m when she led from the start and held on to beat the
men's B grade field with 24.05sec.
This was marginally outside her Otago women's aged 20 record
of 24sec that she ran in 1997.
The wind reading was 2.7m per sec, just over the allowable
limit of 2m per second.
Smythe powered around the bend to run the fourth fastest time
of the day behind three male sprinters who ran the A grade
race.
Her focus is switching to the 400m this season, with a goal
of making the New Zealand team for the Commonwealth Games at
New Delhi in 2010.
Her best time is the 52.89sec she ran a decade ago.
Innes (23), the New Zealand senior 400m champion for the past
three years, took the lead from the start and there was
daylight between him and the rest of the field down the
straight when he won the men's 200m in 21.39sec.
The other top sprint performances came from Toby Flett (Hill
City) who won the boys aged 15 and 16 100m in 10.95sec, Liz
Wilson (Hill City) the masters women's 100m (13.68sec) and
200m (28.62sec) double and Bethany Struthers (Taieri) the
women's aged 17 to 19 100m in 12.76sec.
Struthers (18) also broke the 40m barrier for the first time
when she won the women's aged 17 to 19 hammer throw with
40.97m.
John Gilmour (Hill City) had the best long jump of the day
when he won the boys aged 15 and 16 event with 6.55m.
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