Athletics: Crumpton big winner at awards

Shireen Crumpton's athletics performances over the past 12 months have been remarkable considering the traumatic times she has endured.

Crumpton (38) was last night named the Otago Athlete of the Year at the awards function at Carisbrook.

It was a significant night for Crumpton, who made her mark on the sport nationally to be named the top women's harrier runner and the top senior woman on the track.

Her husband, Doug Crumpton, died of cancer in November, and her subsequent training was disrupted because of a niggling injury.

She displayed remarkable resilience and mental toughness to bring her athletics career back to a high level after looking after her husband during his illness.

She had only three weeks of training before winning the Otago women's 10,000m title in an Otago senior women's record time of 34min 11.77sec in December.

She won her third New Zealand 10,000m title at Inglewood in January and has now won 10 national senior women's titles.

She has won three track titles over 10,000m, three half-marathons, two marathons, one 10km road title and one mountain running title.

The 10,000m was Crumpton's third national title in the past 12 months.

She won the mountain title in Nelson in April and the 10km on the road in Hamilton in September.

Crumpton also won the Gold Coast marathon in Queensland last July in 2hr 38min 21sec, a time that has been accepted by Athletics New Zealand as a qualifying performance for the world championships in Berlin in August.

Discus specialist Marshall Hall was named top senior men's athlete in track and field for his consistent displays last summer.

He was a member of the New Zealand team at the Australia Cup in Brisbane and was fourth in the discus at the Australian championships.

Hall won the New Zealand senior men's discus title and was the top-ranked New Zealand thrower in the event last summer.

The top male winter athlete was Campbell Garry, who finished 19th at the world schools cross-country in the Czech Republic last year.

The top Otago junior summer athlete was Rebekah Greene, who won a gold medal in the 3000m at the Pacific Schools Games in Canberra in December and was runner-up in the same event at the Sydney Youth Olympics in January.

On the local scene, Greene broke 10 Otago records: seven in the 3000m and three in the 1500m.

Caversham distance running coach Dave Stinson was named Otago Coach of the Year.

His most successful athletes are Tony Payne and Lyndon and Robert Brown.

Sprint coach Brent Ward and high jump official Netty Lastovicka were named life members of Athletics Otago. Alan Moir and Marion Harris received merit awards.

Joan and Alex Merrilees received the Contribution to Athletics award.