It would be fair to say Hannah O’Connor stole the show on the track yesterday.
The 17-year-old streaked away to claim gold in the senior girls 3000m on the opening day of the national secondary schools track and field championships at the Caledonian Ground.
She opened a gap from the rest of the field right from the start and by the end that had extended to more than 150m.
Her time of 9min 34.60sec left her 23 seconds in front of silver medallist Aimee Ferguson who, alongside Rebecca Baker, kept a handy gap from fourth place.
It left O’Connor 11 seconds short of the championship record — which remains with Otago’s Rebekah Greene — and nine short of her personal best.
That was not altogether a surprise.Strong winds made for very difficult conditions and a record was always going to be a huge ask.
That was something the Sacred Heart Girls College, New Plymouth, pupil had known and she was ‘‘really happy’’ with her run.
‘‘I knew what the record was and I had it in my sights,’’ she said.
‘‘But I guess with the conditions and there wasn’t much competition for me up front today, it was going to be very hard to get.
‘‘I did see it, but not today.’’
It had been an especially satisfying result for the year 13 pupil, who had been plagued by foot injury before last year’s event.
Despite that, she still competed and won bronze before completing a stellar 12 months.
The highlight of those was the Buenos Aires Youth Olympics.
There she finished seventh in the 3000m in her personal best time of 9min 25.29sec.
Yesterday was not Dunedin’s last chance to see her in action.
She will be back on the track this afternoon in the 1500m heats.
Alongside that she will contest the 2000m steeplechase and 4km road race.
Meanwhile, on the field, Burnside High School’s Cameron Hewitt delivered a record-breaking pole vault performance.He jumped an impressive 3.50m to claim gold in the junior boys event, breaking the existing record by 50cm.
Jonathan Sceats and Josh Woodhead also broke the existing record, clearing 3.15m.
Blue Mountain College’s Mikairi Beauchamp-Moore delivered an exceptional performance in the senior girls javelin.
She threw 40.65m to claim silver in the event, backing her silver medal in the junior event last year.Southland Girls’ High School’s Jessica Senior came in third with 40.29m, while Hobsonville’s Savannah Scheen claimed gold with 43.48m.
Taieri College’s Ben Baines threw 9.24m to win silver in the multiclass para junior shot put.
Otago Boys’ High School’s Cameron Moffitt also had success in the shot put, picking up bronze in the junior boys event with a throw of 12.96m.
