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Lauren Bruce, one of New Zealand's rising stars, stamped her authority in the throwing circle at the Caledonian Ground on Saturday.
Bruce (16), a year 12 pupil at Craighead Diocesan, made the trip from Timaru in search of competition in a technically-approved throwing circle.
While the competition was keen, Bruce's ability stood out like a beacon, especially in the hammer throw, where her work on a fourth turn with coach Ian Baird showed immediate results. She extended her personal best with the 3kg hammer by over 1m to record the best throw of the day of 56.80m.
''I hoped to throw better than that,'' she said.
''But it is my first competition for the season, so I've got to be happy with a PB.''
Bruce will need to throw the 4kg hammer in the senior ranks, but that will not be a problem. She threw 46m to win the national women's under-20 title earlier this year.
After winning the national schools title in Dunedin last December, she was selected for the Australian Youth Olympics in Sydney, finishing third with a throw of 51.83m.
Bruce eclipsed this mark at the Grand Prix meeting at Auckland in February, and also won at the Oceania championships, held in Tahiti in June.
Bruce also led the way in discus competition on Saturday, winning the overall competition with a throw of 41.89m, displaying a style that was technically perfect.
South Canterbury clubmates Ruby Cochrane and Hamish Dewar also made their mark at the meeting.
Cochrane won the women's under-18 discus with 41.68m, and Dewar won the the men's under-17 discus with 41.03m.
Dewar also put daylight second to be a convincing winner of the junior men's 300m hurdles in a smart time of 47.87sec.
Other highlights from the meeting included.-
• Anna Grimaldi eclipsing Holly Robinson's New Zealand paralympic long jump record, leaping 4.17m.
• Sam Bremer's 3sec personal best in winning the 800m in 1min 54.37sec.
• Kylie Lyders' win in the junior women's 2km steeplechase in 8min 11.64sec.
• Andrew Pohl's victory in the 3000m, clocking 9min 10.69sec.