When there is a will there is a way.
Otago's Andrew Whyte overcame a niggly hip injury to win the senior men's 400m at the national track and field championships in Dunedin on Saturday.
Whyte (22) could barely walk in the days leading up the race, and spent about $400 on physio treatment to ensure he could line up to win the title he last won three years ago.
‘‘A couple of days this week I couldn't even walk. I literally did nothing since last Sunday,'' he said immediately after the race.
‘‘I only just started running [on the morning of the race]. It's a bit worrying in your head when you're worried about getting out of the blocks.''
But Whyte, who ran in lane three, got out of the blocks in style, held his form down the back straight and put the hammer down with 200m to go.
It was a classy run by the top-ranked 400m runner in the country, who crossed the line in 46.70sec, his fastest time since 2013.‘‘I executed it exactly how I wanted to,'' Whyte said.
‘‘Nationals at home is what you want ... it was not a bad time for Dunedin; it's quite a slow track.''Whyte almost did not get to run the race, after he got into a heated exchange with an official a few minutes before the start.
‘‘They threatened me with a yellow card. I asked for a stride out when I got here and they wouldn't let us.‘‘We had been sitting down for half an hour; we weren't allowed to move. We just wanted to stride out 10 minutes before rather than two minutes before.''
With a second national title in the bag, Whyte will now shift his focus to competing in Australia in pursuit of a Rio qualifier (45.80sec).
Provided he is fit, he will run the Perth Track Classic on Saturday and the Brisbane Track Classic the following weekend.
Javelin thrower Laura Overton also won a senior gold medal, ensuring the javelin title remained in Otago, with last year's champion and national record-holder Tori Peeters out injured.
Overton, who finished third last year, won with a 47.80m throw to deny Stephanie Wrathall, of Auckland, who was second with a 47.20m best. Otago's Samuel Bremer won silver in his first serious 800m race.
The 21-year-old has been in the senior ranks for only a year, and specialised in 3000m and 5000m as a junior.
But he ran an impressive 800m, making a late move to power past Waikato's Theuns Pieters on the home straight.
He stopped the clock in 1min 52.57sec for silver, while Canterbury's Brad Mathas showed his class to win his fifth national title in 1min 50.47sec.
As the only hurdler in the men's under-20 hurdles, all Felix McDonald had to do to win gold was not jump the gun and finish the race. He knocked over the first couple of hurdles and ended up crossing the line in a sluggish 17.54sec.
Christina Ashton snared silver behind rival Phoebe Edwards, of Wellington, in the women's under-20 100m hurdles.
Ashton and Edwards were neck and neck through the first 50m before Edwards got the better of Ashton over the final 25m.
Edwards won in 14.64sec, 0.62sec ahead of Ashton.
Maddy Spence in the under-20 400m hurdles, Joccoaa Palmer in the women's under-18 300m hurdles and Anna Grimaldi in the para T47 100m and 200m won Otago's other individual medals on the track at the weekend.
Otago's men's and women's under-20 4x400m relay teams both won silver to wrap up action on the track yesterday.
Madeleine Lindemann won silver in the senior women's triple jump when she finished second behind Manawatu's Anna Thomson with an 11.44m best. Thomson won with a 12.26m leap.
In total, Otago athletes won 26 medals - nine gold, 11 silver and six bronze - during the three-day championships.
Otago competitors
The medallists
Gold: Andrew Whyte, senior men's 400m; Laura Overton, senior women's javelin; Felix McDonald, men's under-20 110m hurdles; Jess Hamill, para F34 women's shot put; Adriana Mawhinney, women's under-20 triple jump; Holly Robinson, women's para javelin; Anna Grimaldi, para T47 long jump, para T47 100m and 200m.
Silver: Christina Ashton, women's under-20 100m hurdles; Samuel Bremer, senior men's 800m; Hamish Mears, men's under-18 discus; Danica Davies, women's under-20 javelin; Felix McDonald, men's under-20 long jump; Maddy Spence, women's under-20 400m hurdles; Madeleine Lindemann, women's senior triple jump; Caitlin Dore, women's para javelin; women's under-20 4x400m relay team (Maddy Spence, Christina Ashton, Caitlyn George, Lily Cunningham); women's under-20 4x100m relay team (Spence, Ashton, George, Emma Ward); men's under-20 4x400m relay team (Sam Gouverneur, Oli Chignell, Rory O'Neill, Felix McDonald).
Bronze: Hanna English, women's under-20 5000m; Todd Bates, men's senior hammer throw; Caden Shields, men's senior 5000m; Adriana Mawhinney, women's under-20 high jump; Danica Davies, women's under-20 shot put; Joccoaa Palmer, women's under-18 300m hurdles.
