The province delivered 12 medals on the opening day of the championships which had been delayed three weeks due to Covid-19.
Among those were five gold medals.
Ethan Walker was dominant in winning the under-20 javelin title. He threw 58.12m to win by over 6m, each of his throws further than those of anyone else.
Felix McDonald was second to fellow Otago competitor Shay Veitch (7.78m) in the long jump, claiming silver with a jump of 7.38m.
That duo then gave the senior men’s 4x100m relay team a big boost. Alongside Schuyler Orr and John Gerber they ran 42.32sec to finish second, coming up just short of Auckland.
Veitch also won the men’s 100m. In the under-20 grade Cameron Moffitt also claimed a gold in the 400m hurdles in 56.74sec, while jumping 6.45m to take third in the long jump.
Holly Robinson also claimed gold in the para-javelin with a throw of 42.15m.
Rebekah Greene was silver in the senior women’s 800m, finishing in 2min 07.60sec, just back from Canterbury’s Katherine Camp.
Oli Chignell took bronze in the senior men’s 5000m, his time of 14min 05.05sec a reasonable distance behind champion Hayden Wilde.
Todd Bates also won bronze, throwing 54.72m in the senior men’s hammer.
Ben Baines threw 33.44m to win silver in the para javelin.
Paralympic champion Anna Grimaldi came up short of a medal, but put on an impressive display in the senior women’s long jump. She jumped 5.85m to finish fourth and was just 7cm off bronze.
