Athletics: Ashton wins junior 100m

Christina Ashton
Christina Ashton
Christina Ashton was Otago's shining light at the annual Cooks Classic in Wanganui on Tuesday night.

Despite a pesky headwind, the 19-year-old won the women's junior 100m in 12.89sec.

It was not a particularly fast time by the Taieri athlete's standards, but it was good enough to edge Genna Maples (Wanganui) by 0.09sec.

Elise Forman, of Wellington, was third in 13.44sec.

Ashton also ran the 200m. Her time of 25.98sec was the 12th quickest on the night, 1.68sec slower than that of Lucy Sheat, of Marlborough, who was the fastest.

Otago hurdler Maddy Spence (19) was keen for competition in preparation for the busy part of the season.

The Hill City-University athlete finished third in the 400m hurdles in 1min 4.28sec, 1.46sec behind winner Anna Percy, of Christchurch.

Adrianna Mawhinney (18), of Alexandra, missed out on a top-three finish in the high jump by 5cm.

She cleared 1.56m but was no match for Phoebe Edwards (Wellington), who won with 1.65m,

2cm short of Mawhinney's personal best, set in Dunedin in 2013.

New Zealand middle-distance star Nick Willis became the first person to run five sub-4min miles at Cooks Gardens.

Willis was one of three athletes to go under the magic 4min mile barrier in the race, which he won in 3min 55.56m.

He utilised pacemaker Brad Mathas for the first 800m, before finishing strongly to beat Hamish Carson, of Wellington, who ran 3min 56.72sec. Eric Speakman (Napier) was third in 3min 57.30.

Willis, who will run the national 3000m championship in Wellington tomorrow, had been tied with Sir John Walker and Hamish Christensen with four sub-4min miles at the track.

Willis' time was well short of Walker's national record (3min 49.08sec), which Willis wants to break. His best is 3min 49.83sec.

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