Sophie Shallard (Caversham) set the meeting alight early on Saturday afternoon with a blistering turn of speed to win the historic Ness Cup handicap mile event.
Shallard (19) made the move from Riversdale three years ago to continue a promising future in swimming while boarding at St Hilda’s Collegiate School. But moving on to the University of Otago earlier this year, Shallard became hooked on triathlon, coming under the coaching arm of past international Tony Dodds.
Her entry in the Ness Mile on Saturday came about at the prompting of Dodds as a sharpener for the triathlon,
Submitting a time of 5min 30sec as an estimate, Athletics Otago handicapper Rob Homan took this time into account as well as the 11min 44sec time she clocked for a 3000m event a week earlier, starting Shallard from the 1min 30sec mark.
Taking up the challenge, Shallard wasted little time in distancing herself from her fellow markers and making inroads into the 350m deficit she faced when starting behind front marker Dalise Sanderson.
When Shallard took the lead 550m out, she found another gear to finish 2sec clear of second-placed Ben Rowley (Caversham). Josh Siloy (Taieri) was 13sec further back third.
Defending champion Grayson Westgate (Ariki) took fastest-time honours in 4min 51.26sec. Rowley was second-fastest in 4min 52.21sec and Otago Marathon champion Jonah Smith (Caversham) third-fastest in 4min 53.84sec.
Shallard's actual time of 5min 20.61sec was the third-fastest female time and puts her in good company with Zara Geddes (Hill City-University), who recorded the fastest time of 5min 14.16sec, and Niamh Motley (Timaru) who was next in 5min 15.48sec.
On Saturday she finished in 58.21sec and also shattered the long-standing record in the women's 14 grade set by Kirstin Downie in 1984.
Laker also ran inside the women's 13 record for the 100m when clocking 12.74sec, bettering the mark of 12.82sec, but with a wind reading of 3.11 it could not be ratified as a record.
Laker also made a clean sweep of the sprint events in her grade, winning both the 100m (12.74sec) and 200m (26.39sec).
Josh Chisholm (Taieri) ignited the second day of competition yesterday morning when he broke his own New Zealand record in the men's F40 shot put setting a mark of 4.62m to better the old mark he set last year of 4.60m.
Long jumper Shay Veitch broke the Otago record for a second consecutive week, leaping 7.83m to break the mark he set seven days earlier and lift his all-time national ranking to No.5.
Canterbury athletes took all three podium places in the South Island multi events championships.
Max Attwell made a triumphant return from injury to clinch the title by scoring 7243 points. Masaki Tomooka finished on 6290 points and Jared Neighbours 5607 points.
Rebekah Greene (Hill City-University) made a triumphant return to the track when making short work of the Otago 5000m women’s championship, winning in 16min 19.70sec. Greene's Hill City-University club-mate, Jake Owen, won the senior men's title in 16min 7.84sec.
