Despite blustery conditions, the Yvette Williams Memorial meeting produced a range of impressive performances at the Caledonian Ground on Saturday.
Schuyler Orr held off a competitive field to claim 100m honours.
After a strong start from Seb Ferro (Hill City-University), North Otago runner Orr broke through in the second half of the race to clinch the win in 11.30sec.
Ferro was second in 11.40sec and rising talent Brooke Darcy rounded out the podium in 11.56sec.
Taieri sprinter Jorja Gibbons led gun to tape to win the women’s 100m in 12.35sec, a show of impressive form following a placing of second in the event at the Oceania Cup in October. Junior athletes Sadye Kawau and Sylvie Haig claimed the next two spots with 12.99sec and 13.19sec respectively.
Gibbons also won the women’s long jump with 5.32m in the second round.
In the time-honoured Ness Cup, a well-judged race helped Zian Kruger (HCU) storm to victory in the handicap mile.
As the chase pack began to close in on the final lap, Kruger turned up the pace to cross the line in 6min 14.83sec, just in front of clubmates Georgia Benson (6min 16.07sec) and Penelope Hodgson (6min 24.28sec).
The performance indicates a promising athletics career ahead for Kruger, who takes home an impressive piece of silverware.
Last off the line, Jake Owen (HCU) dug deep to reel in the pack and run the fastest mile of the day in 4min 24.80sec.
Owen claimed time honours for a third year straight, no mean feat with Leith’s Stephen Johnson putting up a challenge.
Caversham runner Becky De La Harpe backed up a fourth placing at last week’s Queenstown half-marathon with a close-to-PB time of 5min 14.80sec to earn fastest female honours. This edged out Abby O’Boyle’s (St Pauls) time of 5min 16.04sec.
Josh Chisholm did not disappoint in his first outing in the men’s javelin, setting a New Zealand F40 record of 11.18m.
Finn Tregurtha-Nairn nearly brought another para record, recording 4.71m in the T38 long jump, but the tail wind was just above the legal limit.
Two Otago-best performances were set in the pre-meeting 2000m steeplechase. Caleb Dobier (HCU) ran 6min 41.53sec to break the men’s 14-year record, while Taylor Martin rewrote the men’s 13-year mark with a time of 7min 6.20sec.
Another highlight was a string of dominant throws from Hill City-University’s Simon Maole, who won the open men’s shot put and hammer throw with 12.19m and 33.15m respectively, while settling for second in discus, which was won by Fiordland Athletics Club athlete Bohdi Trevor-Smith in an impressive 48.07m.
Alexa Duff (HCU) threw 41.40m to win the women’s javelin, while Alex Wood (COBU) won the men’s in 67.72m, one of New Zealand’s best throws this year.
— Matt Bolter
