Athletics: Gutsy victory by Chignell

Jonah Smith leads eventual men's winner Oliver Chignell at the start of the Otago 5000m championship race at the Caledonian Ground on Saturday. Women's winner Sian English is in  sixth. Photo by Linda Robertson.
Jonah Smith leads eventual men's winner Oliver Chignell at the start of the Otago 5000m championship race at the Caledonian Ground on Saturday. Women's winner Sian English is in sixth. Photo by Linda Robertson.
National junior champion Oliver Chignell fought wind gusts, heat and tired legs to win the Otago 5000m championship race at the Caledonian Ground on Saturday.

Chignell (16), a year 13 pupil at John McGlashan College, has been a model of consistency on the track all summer, having won a treble of 3000m titles in track competition prior to Christmas.

Two of his three 3000m titles were claimed in Otago and Otago Southland schools competitions, and his third was won in the South Island regional championship.

Usually a 1500m and 3000m runner, Chignall tackled a 5000m race on Saturday for just a second time. His only other race over the distance was at the national championships last year, in which he clocked 15min 56sec.

Although slower, Chignell was happy to get away with a time of 16min 6.29sec on Saturday, having to contend with heat and a gusty head wind.

''I don't function too well in heat,'' Chignell said after the race, adding that running into strong wind gusts up the back straight also took its toll.

''I certainly felt it in my legs at the 4km mark, where my time fell away, but managed to get it together for the last 1km.''

Chignell took it to the field early, sticking to his plan of running at a solid pace and putting space between himself and the threats posed by Otago 10,000m and steeplechase champion Jonah Smith (Caversham) and Ben Wardhaugh (Hill City University).

Chignell's victory secured the Otago junior title, while Smith's second place in 16min 18.97sec secured the senior men's. Glen Ferguson (Leith) finished third overall to win the Otago masters title in 16min 20.78sec, just outside an Otago age group record.

Chignell began the season with a personal best 4min 11sec for the 1500m and hopes to give this time a nudge in next weekend's Otago track and field championships, in which he will contest the 1500m and 3000m titles.

National junior women's 5000m champion Sian English (Auckland City Athletic) made an impressive senior debut, winning the open women's event in 18min 50.11sec.

English (19), a civil engineering student at the University of Auckland, has been back in Dunedin spending the holidays with family and friends, but, anxious for a race, decided to enter Saturday's 5000m.

Like Chignell before her, English found it a hard grind into the gusty winds in the back straight and, given the conditions, was satisfied with the result, despite it being well outside her personal best.

The Otago masters weight pentathlon championship, held in association with the meeting, resulted in Keith Hutton continuing to stretch men's 65 69 age group records.

He won the masters men's 65 title while extending his own Otago pentathlon record to 3161 points, and improved the age group javelin record to 36.07m.

Hutton scored the second highest total throughout the grades, only headed by Southland's Mark Flaus, who won the men's 50 grade with 3251 points.

In other grades, Invercargill's Lester Laughton won the men's 60 title with 2506 points and Michael Scholten (Taieri) the men's 30 title with 2480 points.

The women's competition proved very competitive, particularly in the women's 55 59 grade, in which Fiona Harvey upset Taieri clubmate Winifred Harding to win the grade on 2825 points from Harding on 2688 points.

Alison Newall (Caversham) thrived in the combined competition with personal bests in the hammer throw and discus, to win the women's 50 54 grade.

Noni Callender (Otago Masters) won the women's 65 69 with 2568 points and Paula Cotter (Caversham) scored 1435 points to win the women's 30 grade.

 

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