Dominant win by Staufenburg in Otago 5000m champs

Georgia Mitchell
Georgia Mitchell
Janus Staufenburg put in a dominant performance to claim one of several Otago titles on offer at the Caledonian Ground at the weekend.

The 20-year-old ran 15min 02.95sec to claim the Otago 5000m championship, leading the seven men in the field by over a minute.

Hill City-University’s Oliver O’Sullivan was second in 16min 13.78sec.

HCU claimed the women’s title when Georgia Mitchell ran 20min 11.33sec, beating 62-year-old Julie Wilson by 1min 30sec.

In the Otago combined events championships, South Canterbury’s Christina Ryan put on a strong showing to win the senior women’s heptathlon with 4389 points.

She beat Taieri’s Rosie Elliott, who was second with 3702 points.

HCU’s Cameron Moffitt was the only competitor in the under-18 men, although he put on a classy display, nevertheless.

His total of 5639 points rates highly in comparison to the top youth decathletes in the country in recent years.

Likewise, Taieri’s Isabella Henderson was the only under-18 women to compete in the heptathlon and won with 2455 points.

Taieri’s Cole Gibbons claimed the under-16 boys octathlon title from Luke Moffitt and Jamin Miller.

In the masters grade, Ariki’s Carolyn Wills accumulated 3980 points to secure the 35-49 grade heptathlon title in her final year in the grade.

Elsewhere on the track, HCU’s Jake Paul and Fiona Centers ran 11.05sec and 12.48sec win to the men’s and women’s 100m respectively.

Barry Baxter was another to impress, the 77-year-old running 14.97sec to set an  Otago masters 75-grade record.

Paul and Centers were the fastest men and women in the 200m as well — running 22.45sec and 25.21sec respectively.

Cameron Miller (HCU) won the 400m in 52.27sec, while Sophie Napper (HCU) was the fastest woman in 57.60sec.

Ariki’s Phil Napper kept up his record-breaking ways, taking the Otago men’s 65-grade masters 400m record in 66.10sec.

Leith’s Nathan Hill won the 1500m in 4min 06.42sec, a second ahead of Aspiring’s Gregor Findlay, while Rebekah Greene (HCU) was the fastest woman — and sixth overall — in 4min 26.08sec.

In field events, Taieri’s Ben Baines claimed the national para men’s 16-and-under F38 discus record of 20.26m.

Zharna Beattie (Taieri) won the women’s open discus with 37.09m, while Jade Zaia (Taieri) was the best of the men with 42.09m.

Zaia also won the men’s senior shot put with 13.35m, while Beattie threw 11.89m to win the under-18 women’s event.

Taieri’s Emma McKay jumped 10.51m to win the triple jump in the most notable jumping result.

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