John Gilmour (Otago) wins the men's long jump during the
Otago-Southland athletics meeting at the Caledonian Ground
on Saturday. He jumped 6.69m. Photo by Peter McIntosh.
It was a good dress rehearsal for Southland's Matthew
Robinson when he won the feature men's 400m at the inter-centre
athletics meeting against Otago at the Caledonian Ground on
Saturday.
Robinson (18) ran aggressively from the start to win in
48.32sec from Daniel O'Shea (Otago), 49.74sec, and Glen
Ballam (Southland), 50.42sec.
"I wanted to go out hard but then I ran into a head wind in
the back straight," Robinson said.
"I decided to push into it and go for a fast time."
He knew that O'Shea, who has been in good form this season,
was on his tail and pushed even harder round the final bend.
Robinson, a pupil at Southland Boys High School, won the
senior boys 400m at the past two New Zealand secondary
schools championships and wants to complete the hat trick in
Timaru next month.
He has a best time of 47.78sec and has bettered the
qualifying standard of 48 seconds for next year's world
junior athletics championships in Canada.
Robinson is the best-performed 400m runners in the country
this season and holds three of the top five times in the
event.
He heads the national open men's ranking with the 48.01sec he
ran at the Caledonian Ground in October.
O'Shea (20) has also been in good form and is ranked third in
the country with his October time of 48.18sec.
Otago beat Southland by 220 points to 94, winning three of
the four grades.
Southland's only success coming in the women's aged
16-and-under grade.
Otago gained most points in 10 of the 12 event categories,
with Southland's wins coming in the relays and the high jump.
Otago runners dominated the women's 400m, Rebekah Greene
sprinting down the straight to catch team-mate Biddy Skerten
on the line in a time of 59.59sec, with Skerten timed at a
personal-best 59.78sec.
Greene (15) also dominated the women's 1500m by leading from
the front into the difficult head wind on the back straight
to win in 4min 33.26sec.
New Zealand champion Marshall Hall (Otago) won the senior
men's discus with a throw of 47.07m.
It was a consistent display with his five legal throws all
being over 45m.
He threw foul, 45.81m, 46.85m, 46.17m, 46.16m and 47.07m.
Jerram Huston (Otago) returned to the discus circle for the
first time since the Arafura Games in 2005 to throw a
personal-best distance by 3m for his second place with
42.17m.
William Hubber (Otago) won the junior men's event with
41.21m.
Matthew Aitken (Otago), who will be competing in next week's
New Zealand Special Olympics championships in Palmerston
North, won the AWD discus with a throw of 21.97m.
Rebecca Hayman (Otago), who became paralysed from the waist
down in a car accident in 2006, broke her own New Zealand
shot put record in the F55 class by 29cm with a throw of
5.73mHayman (24), the sister of former All Black Carl Hayman,
beat the old record of 5.44m with throws of 5.66m, 5.73m,
5.68m and 5.51m.
Her next target is 6.29m to qualify for the London
Paralympics in 2012.
The Otago Boys High School team of Tim Lawrence, Toby Flett,
John Gilmour and Joe Kemp had a good dress rehearsal for the
New Zealand secondary schools championships when they won the
men's 4x100m relay in 43.25sec.
Fifteen-year-old Greer Alsop (Southland) dominated the
women's long jump with a leap of 5.36m.
John Gilmour (Otago) won the men's long jump with 6.69m from
Todd Swanson (Southland) 6.47m.
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