She was poised to do so last season but let it slip out of her grasp twice. At the New Zealand secondary schools championships in Hastings, Greene was expected to win the 1500m and 3000m but failed to dominate the 3000m and was outsprinted in the final lap.
The pattern was repeated at the New Zealand club championships in Dunedin in March where Greene was favourite to win the 800m-1500m double. This time she was outsprinted in the final straight of the 800m. She won the 1500m title at both championships.
Greene, trained by Jim Baird, will get another chance next weekend. The St Hilda's Collegiate head girl is ranked top in both events this season in her specialist 1500m (4min 19.78sec) and 3000m (9min 21.82sec).
Greene (17) had a useful dress rehearsal when she competed in the senior men's race and ran a personal best 800m time of 2min 7.12sec at the Caledonian Ground in Dunedin on Saturday. It broke her own Otago record in the women's aged 17, 18, 19 and 20 grades by just over 0.5sec.
Greene learned a valuable lesson a week earlier in Timaru when she attempted to beat the leading male runners in the first lap and paid the penalty with a slow 69sec final lap.
At the interclub meeting on Saturday Greene was content to sit at the back of the bunch and drafted behind the male runners for a first lap of 62sec. She reaped the rewards for her more disciplined approach by not slowing as much in the second lap which she completed in 65sec.
Caitlin O'Brien (Ariki), another Baird-trained athlete, held on to beat Christina Taylor (Hill City) in the women's 800m in 2min 17.28sec. She is ranked third in the country for her age group this season with her early-season time of 2min 16.66sec.
Decathlete Mackenzie Haugh (Taieri) had too much speed in the straight and won the men's 16 800m in 2min 11.09sec.
Daniel Balchin (Caversham) sprinted the last lap in 65sec to win the men's 3000m in 8min 26.96sec. It was 2sec short of his best time and was the second-fastest in New Zealand this season.
Andrew Whyte (Hill City) also had a good warmup for the secondary championships when he won the men's 100m (11.04sec) and 200m (22.06sec) double. It was a personal best time in the 100m when he beat clubmate Robert Jopp 11.31sec and Blair Grant (Taieri) 11.55sec.
Dean Rusbatch (Taieri) prepared for the schools championships by winning the men's 19 discus (46.17) and hammer throw (54.81m). He improved by 3.37m in the 5kg hammer throw.
Holly Robinson (Taieri), a New Zealand AWD representative, last season, won the women's 19 discus with a throw of 31.43m.
Rebecca Wardell (Christchurch Old Boys) won the women's high jump with 1.60m. She shifted to Dunedin after the Christchurch earthquakes to train for the Olympic Games heptathlon.
Sophie Napper (Taieri) won the women's 60m (8.27sec), 100m (12.85sec) and 200m (26.25sec) sprint triple.
