Building to the Oceania champs

Maddie Wilson achieved six personal bests out of a possible seven and is looking to continue this form. She won her first senior national title in the heptathlon. Pictures by Alisha Lovrich

Madeleine Wilson is a star on the rise.

And 2019 Gisborne Girls’ High School head prefect and dux Maddie, 21, who is in her fifth year of study at the University of Canterbury, has been in superb form lately.

At the weekend in Christchurch, she went toe to toe with top international high-jump competitors such as Oceania champion Erin Shaw of Australia, two-time Japanese national champion Nagisa Takahashi and three-time New Zealand champion Keeley O’Hagan.

Last year Wilson set a record 1.82 metres at the same event, the Mainland Foundation Women’s High Jump, for both the meet and as international track meet past champion.

She felt that it was cool to compete in Christchurch with many international athletes in attendance, but was still recovering from her stellar exertions of a week before.

Wilson had achieved six personal bests of a possible seven at the New Zealand Combined Events Championships at the Caledonian Ground in Dunedin to win her first senior national title in the heptathlon. Had it not been for a wind-reading of +2.8 in the 200m, Wilson would have had a seventh personal best: her time for that event was 24.79 seconds.

Her overall score at the meeting was 5990 — a gain of 641 points on her previous personal best, at the Australian Combined Events Championships last year.

In the 100m hurdles her time was 14.55+0.8, in the high jump she leapt 1.86m, in the shot put she threw 12.51m, in the long jump her distance was 6.05m+1.2, she threw the javelin 40.48m and her time in the 800m was two minutes 15.14 seconds.

Wilson was delighted with her efforts.

“I was stoked and super-excited by my performance,” she said.

“It gives me a lot of confidence and belief in what I can achieve in the future. I really wanted to improve my throws — which I did significantly — and my immediate goals are to push myself in the individual events over the rest of the domestic season, and then build towards the Oceania championships in June.”

The Oceania Championships will be held in Suva, Fiji, from June 4 to 8.

Christchurch-based James Sandilands has been Wilson’s coach for two years; she previously worked with Athletics New Zealand coach Terry Lomax.

“She’s a talented high-jumper who’s transferred that skill to the long jump, and she’s running a lot faster,” Sandilands said.

“She’s made technical changes with both the javelin and the shot put, which have paid off.”

Sandilands believes that Wilson has taken a big step forward.

“To pull all of those personal bests out in one go is unheard of, spectacular. It was one of those days where she was in the zone and couldn’t do anything wrong. It was warm; there wasn’t a lot of wind.

“Maddie works hard and manages to get a lot done, with both her studies and athletics, and she’s been very consistent. She’s at a level now where you have to step up against top competitors.

“Now we’ve got a handful of individual events to work towards at the National Track and Field Championships at Wellington from March 13 to 16.”