Rebekah Greene (Hill City) ended the year in style by completing her hat trick of New Zealand girls aged 16 records. Greene (16), a pupil at St Hilda's Collegiate, has become the wonder woman of Otago athletics this year.
She proved it at the Caledonian Ground on Saturday by beating the national 800m record of 2min 8sec with her time of 2min 7.77sec.
It came just eight days before Greene turns 17 on Boxing Day, and was her third New Zealand record this year.
The first was as a member of the New Zealand 4 x 400m relay team at the Oceania championships in Sydney on March 3.
The second was at the world junior track and field championships in Canada on July 23, when she broke Sue Bruce's 1981 1500m record with a time of 4min 18.90sec.
Greene ran in the elite men's race on Saturday and finished seventh.
It was won by Ben Jowsey (Hill City) in 1min 57sec.
Greene passed through the first lap in a fast 62sec.
"I felt OK," she said.
"I planned to go out fast and see how long I could hold it."
She ran 33sec for the third 200m and came home in 32sec.
Greene has tested herself in the elite men's races over the last month and has relished the challenge.
"It's good practice for the nationals," Greene said. "The top girls run that time and it is good to get used to it."
Greene is now the third-ranked woman aged 19 and under in the country and is the fourth-ranked senior woman.
Greene is the first Otago athlete to break a New Zealand record at the Caledonian Ground since Andrea Miller (Taieri) set a senior women's 100m hurdles time of 13.40sec on January 24, 2007.
Greene will relax over the school holidays and spend Christmas in Wanaka and New Year in Queenstown.
She will then fly to the Sunshine Coast of Queenslandfor a family holiday.
Greene's time was also an Otago record for women aged 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20.
Sylvia Potts (Ariki) holds the senior women's record with the time of 2min 4.1sec she ran in 1970.
Other Otago records were run by Dalise Sanderson (Ariki) in the age 55 to 59 grade in the 800m (2min 51.63sec) and 3000m (12min 19.21sec).
